


Sincerely to Stay

by sarahexplosions



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Getting Together, M/M, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), a frankly unrealistic number of honest conversations, guest appearances from a hundred other MCU characters, references to and discussion of other canon relationships, vague comic book science and medicine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 18:03:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 29,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15466986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarahexplosions/pseuds/sarahexplosions
Summary: The Avengers spend three and a half days in Wakanda following Thanos's defeat.  During this time Bruce has multiple awkward conversations, helps build a space portal, and finally stops running from what he wants.





	Sincerely to Stay

Tony offers himself up for the Soul Stone.

Hulk says no.

Steve also says no. He starts shouting that it’s not right, they don’t trade lives, he’s not-

Tony shouts back. “One person for half the universe is a damn good trade.”

The whole group starts arguing but Hulk is stuck on Tony, Tony, Tony. Blue Woman already explained how this works: kill someone you love, control the glove, save the world. Hulk knows Tony wants to save the world. Hulk knows exactly what is about to happen.

Hulk _screams_ no and all the shouting immediately stops. Everyone stares at him but Hulk only looks at Tony, looks him right in the face and screams “Don’t make Hulk do it.”

Tony’s eyes go big.

They stare at each other for so long, Tony wide-eyed, Hulk close to screaming more, that Steve takes control again.

“You’ve been overruled,” he tells Tony. “We’re gonna find another way.

 

  
MONDAY

 

It’s five in the morning in some random room of the Wakandan palace, and the Hulk keeps telling Bruce that he’s bored.

Thor, Shuri, Tony, and Rocket, perched on Groot’s shoulder, are talking with Jane Foster and Erik Selvig over Tony’s cell phone about wormholes and faster-than-light travel, trying to figure out how to get the surviving Asgardians to Earth faster. King T’Challa is also there, saying “we can make that happen” whenever Shuri says she’ll need something. Bruce should hypothetically be talking with them, but he’s not. Instead he’s holding Tony’s cell up for the room and not paying much attention to the impromptu science conference at all.

In his defense, there’s no real reason for Bruce to be here. Space travel is way out of his field of expertise. Yes, he has traveled through wormholes and on spaceships, but he didn’t know what was happening when he did. There isn’t much he can contribute. And Bruce is tired, and trying to adjust to the Hulk’s deeper presence in his mind, and still reeling from the events of the last week or so. He probably shouldn’t be here at all.

But Thor called for Tony, and Bruce followed him.

Shuri is scribbling notes in the air to be recorded by her beads. (Which sounds ridiculous but Bruce doesn’t know how else to describe it, the tech here is beyond him.) Tony is writing on what resembles a tablet, though Bruce isn’t sure if that’s what Wakandans call it. Bruce also isn’t sure how Tony got one but he’s already using it like he’s had it all his life, even with his cosmically-destroyed left arm in a sling. Figures.

“I could get the materials but it would take a while,” Rocket is saying. “You guys don’t even have a jump system.”

“I am Groot,” Groot adds.

“That’s rude,” Thor tells Groot.

“Then we’ll stick with what we have,” Shuri says. “We have the resources to build a device to harness the power of Thor’s axe. We will open the Bifrost and bring the Asgardian ship to Earth.”

“That’s the quickest option,” Jane agrees.

Thor turns to Shuri. “Could you give me an estimate of how long it will take?”

Shuri takes a moment to look around the room, sizing them up. “A couple days? I will give you a better guess once we have a design for the device.”

“That shouldn’t take too long,” Tony says. Then he winks and smiles at Bruce from across the room.

And the Hulk smiles back.

Bruce’s mind is still there but the Hulk takes over his face, for the express purpose of smiling back at Tony. It feels extremely weird. But the Hulk’s broadcast in Bruce’s mind changes from boredom to joy and relief. He’s happy.

Bruce is happy too. He hasn’t had much time to think about it before now, but he feels so infinitely grateful to see Tony again, that they were able to reunite after years and light years apart. That neither of them died in the fight against Thanos.

That Bruce doesn’t have to live without him.

“Bruce?” Thor says. “Could I talk to you alone?”

Bruce blinks away his thoughts. “Sure.” He talks into the phone while looking at Tony, who’s still looking back at him. “Uh, Erik, Jane, I’m handing you off.”

“Talk to you soon,” Selvig says.

Bruce gives the phone back to Tony, mentally preparing himself for...something. Some kind of acknowledgement of the Hulk’s presence, or how they both stared at Tony just now, or about what Hulk said during the argument about the Infinity Gauntlet.

But Tony simply takes the phone and jumps up to Shuri to start designing a device. Bruce tells himself he’s relieved and follows Thor out of the room.

“I discussed this with your greener self,” Thor says in the hallway, a bit of humor in his voice, “but I wanted to talk about it with your consciousness as well.”

“Sure,” Bruce says. “Is something wrong?”

Thor shakes his head. “I wanted to tell you, when New Asgard is established here on Earth, you are invited to live there.”

“...Oh,” Bruce says, because that’s nothing he was prepared for. “Wow. Really?”

Thor smiles. “Your transformation into the Hulk in Asgard saved many lives. You are a hero of our people. And you are my friend,” he adds importantly. “You will always be welcome.”

He’s the second friend to tell Bruce he could live with them forever. After years on the run it means more than he can verbalize. “Thank you,” he murmurs.

“You’re not obligated,” Thor says, “but I wanted you to know it’s an option. I understand you are, uh, having disagreements with various countries on this planet.”

“Right,” Bruce says blankly. He had only gotten a quick rundown about the Sokovia Accords, but that was enough to assume his legal situation is, well, bad. He had figured he would worry about it after they saved the world.

And they did save the world. The battle ended yesterday, Thanos defeated, half the universe’s population back as if they’d never left. There hasn’t been much calm since. Wakanda itself is working overtime to cure the injured and assess the damage they’ve sustained. The people who gathered under the name of the Avengers have been healing, or mourning, or on the phone with their family or the press or the president. Or all of the above, if you’re James Rhodes.

Bruce himself came back from the Hulk to Tony’s hand on his cheek and multiple people offering him pants. From there it’s been checking on friends’ injuries and shoving down food and listening to the Hulk’s mental declarations of boredom. He hasn’t even slept.

But it’s over now. The battle is won and Bruce can now toward the future. Maybe his future can be in New Asgard. Maybe he shouldn’t be involving a brand new country in his legal troubles, but it’s good to know he has that option.

There’s a part of himself asking _but what about Tony?_ He’s trying to ignore it.

“Thank you,” Bruce tells Thor again. “I don’t have an answer for you yet, but thank you.”

Thor rests his heavy hand on Bruce’s shoulder. “Take your time,” he says. “Shall we visit our friends?”

The hospital near the palace is crowded enough that they opened an overflow floor exclusively for the visitors from other countries and planets. Said floor is just as chaotic as it was the last time Bruce was here. Stephen Strange and Jemma Simmons, one of the many people Nick Fury brought with him, have actual medical degrees and therefore have been helping to treat the more minor injuries. Peter Quill and Sam Wilson are going through medical exams as they argue over who was the best band of the 70s. Rhodes is lying down in his bed, his braces trashed, as he talks with probably eight world leaders and their butlers over the phone. Hope Van Dyne is hooked up to pain meds, laughing with both of her parents.

Thor and Bruce wave to those they pass. Their first real stop is to visit Steve, looking like he did before he got the super-soldier serum in 1942. He’s sitting up in bed and looking well, if a little tired.

“Steve.” Thor reaches out a fist and Steve bumps it. The size discrepancy between them is enormous now, it’s almost funny. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m okay,” Steve says. “The serum is gone but there’s nothing wrong me. The doctors confirmed it.”

“Do they have an estimate on your lifespan?” Bruce asks warily.

“About the same as anyone else’s,” Steve says. Bruce smiles, relieved.

“Shorter,” argues Bucky, who is sits in a chair at Steve’s bedside. “Now other people will actually be able to beat his ass.”

“Shut up,” Steve laughs. “I’ll just have to learn how to fight again.”

Thor beams. “Losing physical strength would never cause you to give up.”

“There’s plenty I can still do,” Steve says. “I’ll run back-end on missions, do strategy-”

Bucky interjects, “And get angry when you can’t punch the bad guys yourself.”

Steve shoves Bucky’s shoulder, though it doesn’t accomplish much, before turning to Bruce. “How’s the science going?”

“We have a plan,” Bruce says. “They’re working on a design for a machine right now.”

“That’s great. I’m glad we’ll be able to help the Asgardians,” Steve tells Thor. “Let me know if there’s anything I can do. I’m not good at the science stuff, but - oh hey, Natasha’s awake.”

Bruce and Thor turn. Natasha is lying down but her eyes are open as she talks to one of the doctors.

“We’ll be back later,” Thor tells Steve.

“Yeah, go check on her.”

Thor and Bruce walk over to her. “...don’t expect any complications,” the doctor is saying. “You will need to rest today. Are you sure we don’t need to be worried about him?”

He is referring to Clint, sleeping in a chair at Natasha’s bedside, slumped in an impossible position that is sure to destroy his back. Natasha grins. “He’s fine,” she says. “He’s just worried about me.”

The doctor shakes his head and leaves to look after other patients. Natasha turns her grin to Thor and Bruce as they pull up more chairs.

“How do you feel?” Bruce asks.

“Like a train hit me,” Natasha answers lightly. “Doctor says the procedure went well. I’m expected to make a full recovery.”

Bruce feels another round of immediate relief. When he woke up after the battle Natasha was weak from pain and blood loss. Clint had to carry her to the hospital. It’s good to hear her sound like herself again, and to know her leg will be fine.

“We’re glad you’re going to be okay,” Thor says. “You were in poor shape and we were worried. Seriously, how can Clint sleep like that?”

“Clint’s the father of three and a former agent,” Natasha says, looking at her friend with amusement. “He’s learned to take sleep when he can get it.”

Bruce smiles. It feels like no time as passed, that the Avengers have just finished a rougher mission on their campaign to destroy Hydra. Some have sustained injuries but will recover fine, someone is getting teased, Tony is designing something in another room.

But then Natasha’s smile disappears. “We lost Vision.”

Bruce stops smiling too. “Yes.”

“Who else?”

“Nebula,” Thor says. “Some warriors of this country.”

“...Not more?” Natasha says quietly.. “I’m shocked.”

Bruce huffs a laugh even though it’s not funny. “Yeah, me too.”

Natasha reaches out her hand and Bruce takes it without thinking. Thor goes still, looking uncomfortable. It’s the same way everyone at the Avengers compound reacted when Bruce saw her again.

“Thor!” Shuri calls as she enters the ward, Tony at her heels. “We have a design!”

“Oh thank Odin,” Thor says and instantly stands up and leaves.

“I guess we’re really that awkward,” Bruce comments.

“Or he’s just weak.” Natasha squeezes his hand. “I’m happy to see you.”

“I am too,” Bruce says. So is the Hulk. “And I’m glad you’re going to be okay.”

As if it’s not a major subject change, Natasha says, “I’m sorry I made you transform and fight Ultron.”

Bruce tilts his head. “No you’re not.”

Natasha smiles humorlessly. “No, I’m not.”

“You shouldn’t be sorry,” he says.

It takes her visibly by surprise. “Really?”

Bruce laughs with uncertainty. “My perspective changed when I saw a giant undead wolf on Asgard. People were in trouble. I couldn’t stop it, but the Hulk could.” He remembers that moment clearly, realizing he was giving himself up for strangers. “You were trying to save people in Sokovia. You shouldn’t be sorry for doing the right thing.”

Natasha studies him. “‘Giant undead wolf’?” she repeats carefully, like she doesn’t believe it.

He doesn’t blame her. “Asgard was crazy.”

She pats his hand. “Hulk beat its ass?”

The Hulk pulls Bruce’s body up straight.

“Good job,” Natasha says. Hulk grins at her. “Good job helping us, too. We needed you.”

A memory floats to Bruce’s mind, partly from himself and partly from the Hulk. _I adore you,_ she had told him, and kissed him, and then threw him down a crater. _But I need the other guy._ It’s what Bruce had long had trouble accepting: the Hulk could be valuable. The Hulk could save people. Natasha had figured it out years before he did and chose saving lives over his comfort.

Of course she did. She would never choose anything else.

“Natasha too,” Hulk tells her. It’s strange talking in Banner’s body. He’s not sure he likes it. “Needed Natasha too.”

Natasha seems both surprised and touched by Hulk’s words. “Thanks.”

“Hulk couldn’t stay,” Hulk continues. “After Ultron. Hulk leave.”

“Why?” she asks.

“No place for Hulk,” he explains. “Earth hate Hulk. Banner hate Hulk. Hulk like Hulk. Hulk leave.”

Natasha nods. Her face is soft and sad with understanding. She didn’t like that he left.

“Hulk like Nat,” Hulk says. She should know.

She beams. “I like you too, Hulk,” she says brightly. “But I like Banner, too.”

“Banner okay,” Hulk admits. “Banner like Hulk now. Banner talk to Hulk now. Banner okay.”

Natasha snorts. Clint snores a little in his sleep, like he’s responding to her, but he doesn’t stir. “I’m glad you two have worked things out a little,” she says.

Hulk rolls his eyes, and then it’s Bruce blinking his way back to higher thoughts. “We’re still working on the logistics,” he mumbles, rubbing his face.

“Well, you spent a long time fighting. Give it time.”

Thor had told him to take his time, too. Maybe Bruce should start listening.

He knows they need to talk about what happened between them. But as he’s trying to figure out what to say, Tony’s voice explodes across the floor.

“ _No, you can’t_!”

By the time Bruce has turned in the direction of the sound, the majority of the ward has gone abruptly silent. Tony is standing in front of Rhodes’s bed yelling at Shuri, Shuri is looking unimpressed, and two Dora Milaje are on either side of Tony, pointing spears at him.

“-braces were designed for his exact body measurements and his exact brain chemistry, you can’t just mess with that shit-”

“Tony, shut up,” Rhodes tells him. He’s still holding his phone; for all Bruce knows the Prime Minister of Italy is over hearing all of this.

“Calm down, white man,” Shuri says, “I was offering help-”

“I don’t need your help!”

“Back off!” The Dora Milaje step up to Tony, their spears worryingly close to his neck. Hulk is ready to fight, but Bruce tells him to stand down. Hulk listens. What a concept.

Tony is frozen for a moment, anger radiating off him. Then he abruptly storms out the door.

“I’m sorry,” Rhodes tells the guards. “Please don’t blow off his nose, give him an hour and he’ll apologize.”

Shuri looks entirely unconcerned about Tony’s meltdown. “What do you think about upgrades to your braces?” she asks Rhodes.

Bruce turns back to Natasha, but she’s already lifting her hand away from his. “It’s fine, go,” she tells him. So Bruce nods and leaves her (and Clint, still sleeping even after the outburst).

Stepping outside the crowded ward feels like stepping into another world. It’s so much quieter and calmer. Bruce takes a second to enjoy the silence before beginning to search. He eventually finds Tony sitting in what appears to be a custodial storage room, scribbling madly on the Wakandan tablet in his lap with his one working hand.

“-single handedly changed the landscape of the worldwide energy market, got punched in the face by a _moon_ , I don’t need some goddamn kid telling me I don’t know how-”

“Tony?”

Bruce gets the full force of the anger in Tony’s face before he realizes who’s talking to him. “Hey,” Tony says, fake-casual. “How’s it going. Am I about to be arrested for shouting at royalty? Wouldn’t be the first time that happened.”

Bruce doesn’t know what to say. So Hulk steps up.

“Tony angry,” says Hulk.

“Of course I’m angry!” Tony jams the stylus against the tablet. “I built those braces! I spent dozens of sleepless nights on them, there’s nothing wrong with them!”

“Hulk smash?” Hulk offers.

Tony is still for a moment before he finally deflates. He unceremoniously drops the tablet and stylus to the floor and puts his head in his hand.

“I didn’t know if he was going to live,” he says quietly. “Rhodey. He fell and I didn’t reach him in time. And then I was on another _planet_ , and I didn’t know if he was alive. Didn’t know if anyone was alive, who made it, who had - I couldn’t _do_ anything, I knew it was going to-”

Bruce finds his body is already moving, sitting next to Tony and putting his hand on his back.

“Tony,” he whispers, “this wasn’t your fault.”

Tony lets a couple tears fall from his eyes.

He had been in the middle of a panic attack when he arrived back on Earth with Nebula, gasping and shaking. He had grabbed Bruce and hadn’t let go for a long time. Now Tony is crying as silently as he can, taking deep breaths as the tears come. Bruce hadn’t known what to do then and he doesn’t know what to do now. He’s never been great at comforting people. But he tries his best and lets Tony lean into him as he tries to calm down.

“It feels like my fault,” Tony says quietly. “Ultron was my fault.”

“Thanos wasn’t. And you stopped him,” Bruce says, gesturing toward Tony’s left arm. “You used the Gauntlet. You brought everyone back.”

“I could have stopped it from happening in the first place.”

“No, you couldn’t have. You can’t control everything.”

“Wish I could.” Tony wipes his eyes and his face with his hand. “I wish I could make sure nothing like this ever happens again. I just want to fix everything.”

“I know.” Bruce gently rubs Tony’s back, like trying to transfer his body heat to him. Tony wipes his hand on his pants and then puts it on Bruce’s thigh. It feels familiar even though they’ve never done this before. Bruce hasn’t comforted Tony while he cried before either, but that feels familiar too. Or if not familiar...natural, at least.

“Ultron wasn’t only your fault,” Bruce says. “Mine too. I just left without facing the consequences.”

“You just _left,_ ” Tony stresses, finally raising his head to look Bruce in the eye. “You spent like three years in outer space without me. Dick.”

“ _Hulk_ leave,” Hulk corrects, taking over in a flash.

Tony blinks and then immediately adjusts. “Bruce wanted to leave too. You just were the driver.”

That’s true. “Puny Banner,” Hulk relents.

Tony studies him. “Your eyes are green.” Hulk doesn’t respond to that, he doesn’t care what color his eyes are. Tony kind of smiles to himself and pats Banner’s thigh. “You gonna stay on Earth this time?” he asks.

Hulk shrugs. “Trash like Hulk. But Hulk like friends. Hulk stay.”

“Yeah?” Tony sounds hopeful. “Have you discussed this with puny Banner?”

Hulk listens to Banner’s answer. “Banner stay.”

“Good.” Tony pats this thigh again. “Good. I want you here. Both of you.”

“Tony angry.”

Tony snorts. “Yeah. You left.”

“Hulk angry,” Hulk points out, thinking about the Gauntlet.

Tony narrows his eyes. “Are we talking about feelings now? Is that what we’re doing? I can’t do that right now, I haven’t slept since I was in outer space.”

Hulk knows Tony is avoiding. Fine. They’ll talk about it later. “Tony sleep.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Tony mumbles, uncommitting.

Hulk growls and pushes Tony’s back a little. “Tony sleep,” he commands.

“Knock it off,” Tony protests. “I don’t know if I can.”

Bruce hurts a little hearing that. Hulk, on the other hand, knows a solution.

 

“Tony sleep,” Hulk tells Mantis.

Tony rolls his eyes. Steve, who’s been released from medical and had been talking with the Guardians before Hulk interrupted, frowns. “Mantis got hurt pretty bad. Asking her to use her powers so soon-”

Mantis has already reached up and put her hand on Tony’s head. “Sleep,” she says.

Tony falls asleep standing up.

Hulk catches him while the Guardians burst out laughing. Even if he’s in Banner’s weak body, Hulk always catches Tony.

 

Steve doesn’t want Hulk to transform and wreck the building, so Thor gets recruited to carry Tony to a palace guest room. Thor doesn’t seem to mind at all. He smiles as he sets Tony’s sleeping body on the bed, careful not to jostle the injured arm. And he pats Hulk on the shoulder before leaving the room.

Hulk’s happy that Tony is sleeping now. This is better.

Bruce wants to sleep himself. He feels like he hasn’t rested since that party three years ago when the Avengers took turns trying to lift Thor’s hammer. From there it’s been Ultron, then losing years of his life to the Hulk, then Asgard’s destruction, then traveling in space, then Thanos.

Years of his life, gone, due to green rage and galactic warfare. Just like that. All Bruce can think is that he’s really tired.

But Hulk is thinking about after the battle. Tony didn’t die. Tony hugged him as tight as he could with one arm. Hulk hugged him back gentle as he could.

Hulk settles in bed beside Tony. Banner feels awkward about it, but Banner’s stupid. Hulk ignores him and goes to sleep.

 

Tony isn’t there when Bruce opens his eyes hours later. Instead Bruce wakes up with a note (“ _There’s lunch when you want it! -Peter_ ”) stuck to the bed by spider webs and memories of Tony hugging the Hulk.

He’s pretty sure no one has hugged the Hulk before.

The makeshift dining area is loud. It was mostly quiet last night as people stuffed their faces and worried for their injured friends. Today it’s lively and joyous, the injured limping their way through the line, strangers making friends with each other, Rocket offering Nick Fury an eye.

“Humans are supposed to have two,” Rocket says, holding out an eyeball. “I am offering you this for the low cost of 10,000 units.”

“I have two,” Fury replies.

“Then what’s with the eyepatch?”

Fury raises it and shows off his scarred eye.

“Wow, gross.” Rocket holds the eye higher. “You’re clearly in need of a replacement. Just for you I’ll lower the price to 6,000 units. It’s a one-time offer.”

“No thanks,” says Fury.

Rocket shakes his head. “Your loss.” He jumps down from the table and leaves.

Fury turns to Bruce. “Doctor Banner.”

“Hi,” Bruce says as he sits down across from him. Hulk grumbles about it, because he doesn’t like Fury, but Bruce ignores him. “It’s good to see you up. How’s Hill doing?”

“Good,” Fury says. “We both were cleared from medical at the same time.”

“That’s good.” Bruce had never been close to Maria Hill even when she was working with the Avengers. She was too much a SHIELD agent for him to ever be truly comfortable with her. That doesn’t mean he wants her dead, though. Same goes for Fury. And Coulson, who apparently died but was brought back to life, but then was dying again by the same injury, and now the Wakandan doctors are trying to fix what’s wrong with him. Or something. Bruce can’t keep up.

“I hear you were in space for three years,” Fury says.

“Yeah,” Bruce says. No sense in hiding it if he already knows. “What were you up to?”

“Oh, you know. Some of this, some of that.” Which gives Bruce nothing, probably how Fury wants it.

Bruce changes the subject. “You know Danvers?”

Fury smirks. “Little skirmish back in the 90s.”

“With her involved, I doubt it was that little.”

“I’ve faced the end of the world multiple times now,” Fury says. “Anything below that threat is little to me.”

Bruce can’t blame him for that. “I do always see you when these sorts of things happen,” he says.

“We run in the same circles,” Fury says. “I’m sure I’ll see you next time too.”

“Might be nice if there wasn’t a next time.”

Fury looks almost sad. “There’s always going to be a next time.”

He sounds so tired. Bruce realizes he doesn’t know how old Fury is, how long he’s been doing what he’s doing.

“Lucky for Earth,” Fury says, “they have heroes watching their back.”

They finish their meal in silence and head back to the hospital together. Fury goes to visit Natasha and Clint, currently playing cards with their friend Bobbi Morse. Bruce considers joining them, but his interest is directed to where Rhodes is scolding Tony and getting scanned at the same time.

“I realize it wouldn’t have been the first time your lack of diplomacy caused an international incident-”

“Hey, I apologized!” Tony looks back and forth between Rhodes and the floating see-through scan of his bones Shuri is generating. Shuri smiles in greeting at Bruce when he walks up to them. “I flipped my lid, I slept it off, I apologized-hey Bruce-she said there’s no hard feelings, we’re good.”

“Hey Bruce,” Rhodes says, then turns back to Tony. “You’re lucky she doesn’t take everything personally like you do. Of course, what am I expecting from the guy with the grudge against Professor Norm-”

“Seriously?!” Tony says. “Are we seriously talking about that now?”

“He was two hundred years old!”

“And we graduated decades ago-”

Shuri rolls her eyes and interrupts. “Anything we do for Colonel Rhodes will have to be a secondary priority,” she says. “Our resources are currently dedicated to damage relief and building the portal for the Asgardians.”

“Those should be the priority,” Rhodes says. “You don’t have to-”

“None of that,” Shuri interrupts. “You helped Wakanda, we help you. My point is that we can provide a short-term solution.”

“I have backup braces at home,” Rhodes says. “If you just have a wheelchair I could use to get around...”

“Best one you have,” Tony says. “Got one with lasers?”

“Maybe,” Shuri says thoughtfully, and goes to talk to one of the doctors. Rhodes buries his face in his hand.

“This place is crazy,” Tony says. “I love it. Big guy,” he addresses Bruce, “you missed a lot while you were sleeping.”

Bruce is mostly wondering if Tony got enough sleep, if he’s finally allowed a doctor to inspect his arm yet, and if he’s going to make an awkward comment about Bruce sleeping in the same bed. Tony addresses none of these thoughts.

“We’re waiting on material shipments to start work on the portal, they should be here soon. Shuri whipped you up a pair of glasses so you can read.” Tony hands them over and Bruce stares blankly down at them. “FRIDAY sent her your prescription. Thor contacted the Asgardians through some magical connection, don’t ask me how. He and T’Challa are on conference calls with Norway trying to get land for New Asgard. Peter - the spider one - has eaten twice his weight in food. And in my downtime I have hatched my master plan.”

“Don’t ask about the master plan,” Rhodes tells Bruce immediately. “I don’t need to hear it again.”

“Bruce needs to hear about the master plan,” Tony objects. “He’s involved in the master plan. Everyone’s involved in the master plan.”

“Stop saying ‘master plan’,” Clint calls from across the room.

“No one asked you, Katniss,” Tony calls back without looking at him, and hands Bruce the Wakandan tablet he apparently recovered from earlier. The screen is a world map with writing scribbled over it. “Worldwide force,” Tony says. “So when the next genocidal maniac tries to wipe out the planet we’ll have first responders there as quickly as possible. Still trying to figure out where everyone’s going to live.”

“Still trying to figure out how the Accords will allow it,” Rhodes says.

“We’ll get to that,” Tony says dismissively.

Bruce replays Tony’s words of ‘the next genocidal maniac’ in his head. Tony, like Fury, believes there will always be a next time. Maybe that’s just the world they live in now.

 

Most of the rest of the day is spent in Shuri’s labs working on the portal. Even though it’s not technically a portal, it’s a device that will help Thor’s axe create the portal that they need, but they’re calling it a portal as shorthand.

Whatever it is, it’s not going to fit in a quinjet. “How are you going to get this to Norway?” Bruce asks, studying the plans.

“Helicarrier borrowed from Fury,” Tony says. “Wakanda is donating a lot to New Asgard and sending some volunteers, helicarrier’s the only way we’ll be able to transport it all.”

He’s got his hand on Bruce’s shoulder as he talks. The whole thing makes Bruce nostalgic for when Tony first moved to New York after his Malibu place was destroyed. They spent hours in the lab, talking and bickering and casually touching as if Bruce couldn’t kill him in two seconds flat. Those had been good days.

The lab is busy. Shuri directs her team of scientists on both the portal and damage relief, Tony discusses astrophysics over the phone with Jane, Rocket adjusts the schematics for the device, and Bruce mostly just follows everyone else’s instructions. That’s better for everyone, as he doesn’t really know what he’s doing. This is not his field.

_We’re out of my field here,_ Tony told Bruce when he hatched the plan for Vision. Bruce remembers that moment and his frustration and desperation and, yes, anger, clear as day. He had been skeptical but he trusted Tony, even when the others didn’t.

Vision saved them. Vision is dead now.

There’s so many things between them, so many words that need to be said. For now Bruce stays quiet and Tony touches his shoulder every time he passes.

Okoye comes by at one point to discuss plans with Shuri. Bruce has a feeling there’s a reason she came to talk in person and didn’t just communicate through the Kimoyo beads, and that reason is Tony’s outburst from earlier. Bruce can’t imagine outsiders who scream at the princess are happily welcome. If the Dora Milaje have a shit list, Tony’s on it.

Okoye makes no secret of watching Tony, working on the portal’s base with Rocket, as she leaves the labs.

“I’m guessing she’s not easily forgiving,” Bruce says.

“Of course not,” Shuri says, working at the sand table. “Okoye is the general of the Dora, she protects us. It’s her job to hold a grudge.”

“And Tony’s, er, meltdown really didn’t upset you?” Bruce asks.

Shuri shrugs. “Mr. Stark is not the first person to be intimidated by me.”

That’s nothing surprising. Bruce could tell within minutes of meeting Shuri that she is one of, if not the, most incredible minds on the planet. And she’s _eighteen_. Blatant superiority from the young tends to put people on edge. If Bruce had met Shuri earlier in his life he probably would have been angry about it too.

“I can’t hate everyone who’s mad I’m better than them,” Shuri says. “It would take too much time. Besides,” she adds softly, “Mr. Stark brought my brother back to me.”

Shuri doesn’t look at him, staying focused on her work. Bruce worries for her a little. Brilliant as she is, she’s still so young, and working without having slept the previous night or having the time to process what happened. Bruce would want to comfort her if he had any chance of actually helping.

He knows he doesn’t, so he lets it go. “I’ll be done with the metal alloys soon,” he tells her.

“Thanks,” Shuri says. “Want to start on the stabilizer?”

 

Dinner is very different from the joyful chaos of lunch. They don’t go to the makeshift dining hall. Instead they go outside and gather with Wakandan warriors and citizens to honor the dead.

Their names are spoken aloud, names of people Bruce only knows by the grief of those they have left behind. People speak in both Xhosa and English of their memories of the fallen and the ancestors they’ll meet again in death. Many cry openly, and Shuri rests her face in her mother’s shoulder.

T’Challa wishes the dead to Bast and Sekhmet, listens to M’Baku honor the Jabari tribe’s fallen, and then nods to someone in the crowd. Peter Quill straightens himself up and clears his throat.

“Uh, I know most of you didn’t get to meet her,” Quill says. “But I want to honor Nebula. She was…”

He trails off, sparing a glance to his teammates, particularly Gamora. She’s wrapped in Mantis’s arms and not speaking. But her eyes stay on Quill.

“Nebula suffered a lot in life,” Quill says finally. “She lost a lot and did some bad things. But she changed. She dedicated herself to stopping Thanos and wound up saving a lot of people. And wherever she is, I hope she knows we’re thankful and we’re always gonna remember her. So,” he says, raising his glass. “To Nebula.”

“Nebula,” the crowd echoes.

“Nebula,” Bruce repeats quietly. In his mind he quietly thanks her for keeping Tony alive long enough for them to get back to Earth.

Quill nods his thanks to everyone before hugging Gamora. Then Wanda Maximoff is lifting herself in the air through magic so she can be seen above the crowd. Bruce feels his lungs go tight.

Wanda raises her glass. “To Vision,” she declares. There’s no speech, just an echoing voice and tears in her eyes.

Bruce hasn’t spoken to her since before Vision even came to being, when he told her he could kill her without turning into the Hulk. Vision was the one who told Bruce, three years later, that Pietro Maximoff didn’t make it through the battle with Ultron.

Bruce still hates her. But he can’t let her be alone in her grief. “Vision,” he says loudly.

“Vision,” Tony says immediately, across the crowd.

Wanda’s staring between them when the crowd echoes Vision’s name. She lowers herself down to Steve’s waiting arms.

Thor steps up. “Heimdall protected the people of Asgard for centuries,” he starts.

It feels like a storm is brewing in Bruce’s head. Memories come to him from the Hulk’s time on the ship from Asgard: Heimdall and the Hulk spent time together. The Hulk liked him. It takes a moment for Bruce to realize the Hulk is grieving.

“He gave his life to stop Thanos. May he rest in Valhalla with the fallen. To Heimdall.”

“Heimdall,” the crowd says.

The Hulk wants to hide and be seen at the same time. So Bruce thinks, _Go ahead. You should honor him._

“Heimdall,” Hulk says out loud. He sends Bruce a feeling that’s something like gratitude.

 

“Doctor Banner.”

Bruce has kept to himself since the speeches. Hulk wanted to be alone, so Bruce found a spot away from others to listen to the songs being sung for the dead.

Wanda looks massively uncomfortable addressing him. Bruce feels massively uncomfortable just hearing her voice near him. “Miss Maximoff,” he says.

She takes a deep breath and says, “Thank you for Vision. Thank you for creating him. For bringing him into my life.”

Bruce’s chest goes tight again. His mind struggles for an appropriate response to this woman he can barely stand to look at. “I wish I could have known him better,” he says finally.

“He was steady,” Wanda says, voice caught. “Gentle but unyielding.”

Bruce doesn’t really know her, either. But he feels like he understands why she loved him. “I’m glad he had you,” he says.

A tear falls, but she quickly brushes it away. Then in a rush she says, “I’m sorry about Johannesburg.”

There’s a bright flash of anger inside him that threatens to take over. The Hulk rumbles. But it’s mostly just Bruce, shaking with rage.

He won’t lose control.

He kind wants to lose control.

But this is basically a wake and it’s not the time to cause a scene. Bruce forces the anger down. He doesn’t force himself to be dishonest, though. He strangles out, “I can’t forgive you.”

Wanda is unsurprised. “I know,” she says. “I’m not expecting it. I just. Regret.”

Bruce hates her. He believes every inch of her pain and regret is true and he hates her for it. It might not be fair but his anger is rarely fair, and he can’t try to change that right now.

“You saved the world,” he manages. “We’ll call it even.”

Wanda nods stiffly. If she has more to say on the subject she decides against it. Instead she wipes her eyes again and forces the world’s weakest smile. “Come join us?”

Bruce looks past her. The Avengers and Guardians and the SHIELD agents who came, all thirty of them or so, are gathered around a bonfire, finishing dinner and talking together. The Hulk is okay with it, so Bruce follows her.

Wanda sits down next to Clint, who Bruce is pretty sure was watching them the whole time they talked. From what he’s gathered Clint’s become protective of her. Of course he would want to make sure their conversation wouldn’t cause an explosion, literal or metaphorical. Bruce sits between Thor and Tony.

“You just returned to the planet, why’d you eat alone?” Tony asks. “Already sick of us?

“It was out of respect for the grieving monster in my head,” Bruce says.

The others around him look confused, but Thor smiles. “Heimdall should be remembered by as many as possible. Thank you, Hulk.”

Bruce nods and settles to listen to the multitude of conversations around him. Carol Danvers and Quill trade stories about a planet Bruce has never heard of. Rocket offers Bucky what sounds like a lot of money for his metal arm. Strange explains to Hank Pym the dynamics of his sling ring, which Bruce would have thought was a lot of mystical mumbo-jumbo if he hadn’t seen it in action.

“I’m sorry about Heimdall,” Tony says to Bruce quietly.

“I’m sorry about Nebula,” Bruce returns.

Tony shrugs, the perfect persona of indifference. “Didn’t really know her.”

Bruce doesn’t buy it for a second. “Tony,” he says.

Tony quickly drops the act. “She got me back to Earth,” he says solemnly. “I can’t repay that.” He falls silent and still. Bruce can’t think of a single word of comfort; he really is terrible at condolences.

Well, it’s not like he can make things much worse. “I wish I could have known Vision a little better,” Bruce says. “I helped bring him to life but I barely knew him.”

Tony looks into the fire. “I don’t think I did either,” he says. “I talked to him, we talked a lot, actually. He always understood me. But I didn’t understand him.” He takes a drink. “That’s my fault. Now he’s just another dead person I didn’t really know and couldn’t save.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Bruce tells him.

Tony laughs harshly. “Yeah, so I’ve heard. Maybe one of these days I’ll believe it.”

Bruce is familiar with the feeling. “Then I’ll keep telling you.”

Tony looks at him, the strangest expression on his face. “Are we going to talk about it?”

Bruce’s throat goes dry. “Which ‘it’?” he asks lightly as he can.

Tony stares at him for a long moment. Then he says, “Okay, fair point,” and stuffs an oversized bite of food in his mouth.

Hulk is broadcasting a feeling that vaguely resembles _Tony run, puny Banner sprint._ Bruce tells Hulk to shut up.

T’Challa and Shuri come to greet the group and are met with an incoherent clamor of hellos. T’Challa beams at them, even in his mourning. Mack, one of the SHIELD agents, rises to his feet. “King T’Challa, we can’t thank you enough for trying to heal our friend. We wish we could help your kingdom repair the damage. But our team needs to get going.”

“So soon?” T’Challa asks.

“We have a friend to save,” Mack says. “It’s a long story.”

“But we will return,” says another agent - Yoyo, they called her. “And when we do we’ll be in your debt.”

“No debts,” T’Challa says. “You will simply be welcome. As for the rest of you,” he addresses to the large group, “our pilots will be on standby again starting tomorrow. When you wish to return home, we will be able to get you to wherever you require.”

Strange opens his mouth but Tony cuts him off. “Schedule a flight tomorrow morning,” he tells T’Challa. “Spiderling needs to get back to New York.”

“Mr. Stark, I can stay!” Peter Parker protests.

“Your aunt is already having convulsions and planning my murder,” Tony says. “And, hello, school.”

“School’s overrated,” Quill says.

“Says the guy who never graduated junior high,” Sam mutters.

“Just a little time off of school won’t hurt,” Peter says.

“You’re leaving tomorrow,” Tony tells him.

“Please?” Peter tries.

“Tomorrow.”

“Just for a few days!”

“Tomorrow.”

“Day after tomorrow?”

Tony narrows his eyes. “In the morning?”

“At night?” Peter bargains.

“Afternoon, _if_ your aunt says it’s okay.”

Peter immediately takes out his phone and starts texting. “I’ll ask!”

“Wednesday,” Tony tells T’Challa. “12:30, not a second later.”

T’Challa doesn’t hide how amusing he found that exchange. “Of course.”

Strange frowns. “Did you all forget I can make a portal to New York through magic?”

They all look at him.

“I did,” T’Challa says.

“Magic’s bullshit,” Tony says.

Scott asks, “Does that mean you could get us to San Francisco?”

Peter asks, “Does that mean I can stay longer?”

Agent May returns to the hospital to look after Coulson as Peter and Tony enter another round of negotiations, but the other agents prepare to leave. Everyone wants to give their thanks and goodbyes, especially to Daisy Johnson. She shakes hands with Quill, exchanges words with Natasha, gives Janet Van Dyne a friendly hug. Then she comes to Bruce and says, “It was good to meet you, Doctor Banner. We’ve used some of your designs in the field before.”

“Simmons told me,” Bruce says. “I saw footage of you in Chicago.”

Daisy’s face changes. “Yeah. I’m glad we were able to stop it.”

There’s a story there that Bruce doesn’t know, but now isn’t the time to ask about it. Daisy looks tired and distracted. She held Infinity Stones in her hands and quaked them apart, and now she’s already focused on her next mission. It’s a tenacity of spirit Bruce can’t hope to match.

“Good luck,” he says.

Daisy shakes his hand before she leaves. Mack leads the team to the transport vehicle they’ll be taking back to their plane. Already on to the next battle. Because there will always be a next one.

 

Natasha’s walking well. Any limp Bruce saw when she showed up for dinner is gone now. The medicine here really is amazing.

“You got a minute?” she asks.

“Yeah,” Bruce says.

With the group returning to the palace and heading to bed, Bruce assumes most people don’t notice him and Natasha slip away and walk to a quiet hallway for privacy. “You know Daisy Johnson?” Bruce asks. They might as well start with small talk.

“We met up a couple times on the run,” Natasha says. “Last I checked she was wanted again, but that was before Chicago. Who knows how things will stand once her team gets back from outer space.”

“Outer space?”

“It’s been a theme lately, hasn’t it?”

They stop beside a window and look at the city outside.

“I think I could have loved you,” Natasha tells him quietly.

Well, she’s never been one to mince words. “It’s hard to love someone who’s gone,” Bruce acknowledges.

Natasha quirks her mouth. “I’d say that it’s hard to love someone who pushes you off a cliff, but we both know that’s a lie.” She really isn’t one for gentleness today.

“You’ve had a rough couple years, haven’t you?”

She lets out a heavy breath. “Sorry. Apparently I’m not handling this as well as I thought I would.”

Bruce swallows. “I never-”

“You don’t need to justify anything.” She smiles at him, sad. “I don’t regret my feelings or my actions, and I don’t need any apologies. It’s just hard.” She blinks a few times, and looks out the window again. “I try not to dwell on what might have been.”

Bruce thinks back to that moment on the Avengers compound, seeing her again. The way her voice sounded when she said ‘hey Bruce’. The way he stared at her and couldn’t figure out where his feelings had gone until he realized they weren’t there anymore.

“I cared about you,” Bruce says because it’s true.

“Not quite the same way, though, huh?” Natasha says.

“I don’t know what you mean,” he says, and then gets reacquainted with the feeling of her seeing through him.

“I saw you as a possibility,” Natasha says. “You saw me as an out.”

Guilt chokes him. “That’s-that’s not-”

But she’s just looking at him and he knows it’s wrong to protest. She’s right. Of course she is. Natasha was always better at understanding him than he was at understanding her.

“It’s been a couple weeks for you, but it’s been three years for me,” she reminds him. “I’ve had a lot of time to think about it.”

“I’m sorry,” Bruce says.

“Don’t be. We both hurt each other. We’re even.”

That’s what he told Wanda, though he didn’t believe it. But Natasha looks like she does. She doesn’t hate him. She’s ready to move on.

Bruce looks out the window and then back to her. “Wrong place, wrong time,” he says.

“Something like that.”

She steps back, but Bruce can’t let her leave yet. “Natasha.”

She stops and looks at him.

“I just-” he stammers. “Wrong place, wrong time. But. I think I could have loved you, too.”

Her eyes go wet before she hides her face by hugging him. Bruce hugs her back. It’s sad, but not as sad Bruce thought it might have been.

For a moment the Hulk takes over, hugging her slightly tighter, a silent goodbye of his own before handing control back to Bruce.

“I still care about you,” Bruce says.

Natasha pulls back. Her smile is genuine this time, and any hint of tears is gone. “I care about you too, Bruce. I kinda wish you had sent a postcard from space.”

Bruce laughs a little. “Maybe I should have.”

“Keep that in mind for next time, okay?” Natasha jokes. “For now, let’s get some sleep.”

“Agreed,” Bruce says.

They walk back to the entrance in companionable silence. It feels wistful, but not hurtful. Bruce thinks privately that his second ever break-up is going pretty well even though they were never really together in the first place.

Clint’s waiting for them by the stairs. Both he and Natasha smile at Bruce and wish him goodnight, and Bruce watches them head toward their room. He’s about to wonder where to find one of his own when Tony walks up to him.

“I made a list,” he announces.

“Of?” Bruce asks.

“All the ‘it’s.” Bruce frowns. Tony frowns back. “All the things we need to talk about,” he clarifies.

Bruce tries to ignore the drumming in his heart. “You made a list?”

“Mostly an excuse to use this thing more,” Tony claims, holding up the tablet. “I can’t help it. This thing is so great I want to put my dick in it.”

The laugh that comes out of Bruce’s mouth is completely undignified. Tony grins, and it makes Bruce’s heart beat just a little faster. Maybe they do need to talk.

“Does your list include your arm?” Bruce asks.

Tony’s grin immediately vanishes. “No.”

“It should.” Tony doesn’t look even the slightest bit enthused about this conversation. “Tony, Wakanda’s medical infrastructure is decades ahead of the rest of the world. If anyone can do something about-”

“I’ll make you a deal,” Tony interrupts. “We can talk about the arm, and I might let you try to convince me to go to Shuri about it, and in return you sleep in my room again tonight.”

Bruce is not blushing. He’s not fifteen, he does not blush at the thought of sharing a bed. But he’ll admit it makes him feel weird. “Why-”

“Discussing the reasoning behind not wanting to sleep alone is not part of the deal,” Tony says flippantly as he can, which isn’t very flippant at all. Does he know his act of aloofness is so bad? “Arm discussion is all I’m putting on the table, take it or leave it.”

Before Bruce can make some sort of expression of uncertainty, Hulk’s in his head telling him to shut up again. So Bruce relents. “Lead the way.”

“Pleasure doing business with you,” Tony says as he starts walking. Bruce follows.

But he doesn’t know what to say, so they go to Tony’s - their - room in silence. They take turns with the shower without exchanging many words either. It’s only when Tony is trying to towel-dry his hair with one hand that Bruce puts the pieces together and speaks up.

“It’s superstition,” he says. “You’re worried if someone helps your arm it will undo the fix.”

Tony tosses the towel away. “It’s not the dumbest thing my brain’s done,” he says.

Bruce sits down on the bed and tries to force a joke. “What would you classify as the dumbest?”

“I don’t know, there’s a lot of competition. Not telling anyone I was dying by palladium poisoning? Poking around Loki’s scepter? Eating ice cream when I’m lactose intolerant?”

“Your Ben and Jerry’s flavor is that good?”

Tony winks. “I prefer the Hulk-A-Hulk-A Burning Fudge.”

“I still don’t believe that’s a thing.”

“It’s totally a thing. Profits went toward rebuilding Johannesburg.”

Bruce knows the anger that rolls through him isn’t fair. He shouldn’t be mad at Tony for acknowledging things that happened.

They both look at Tony’s damaged arm, still in a sling and wrapped in Wakanda’s advanced medical bandages. It was all he would allow the doctors to do with it yesterday. All his other injuries were completely healed, but he looked panicked any time the doctors’ hands even got close to the arm.

Tony says, “I’m supposed to be doing things based on logic. The stones are gone, the gauntlet’s gone, Thanos is gone. There’s nothing to worry about. And here I am.”

Fear, like anger, isn’t always rational.

“Give me your phone,” says Bruce.

Tony tosses the phone over despite his clear confusion. Bruce dials Pepper before handing it back, and Tony’s expression morphs into skepticism.

“Talk to Pepper while I change the bandages,” Bruce says. “And you’ll know that no one is going to disappear.”

They’re both quiet enough for Bruce to hear Pepper’s voice when she answers. “Tony?”

Tony closes his eyes as he brings the phone to his ear. “Hey Pep.” He sits down on the bed and stays still while Bruce undoes the sling straps. “I wanted to check in.”

Bruce is gentle as he can be while removing the sling and the wrappings. He tries not to let the sight of the arm bother him, but it’s...pretty bad. That skin is scorched, and god knows about the damage Bruce can’t see. He isn’t sure how Tony is conscious, let alone moving around without pain relief.

Bruce could inspect more, but just touching the arm is making Tony grimace, and there isn’t anything he can really do tonight. So he wraps it back up and redoes the sling. He’s not quite careful enough; Tony hisses when Bruce tightens the straps. “Sorry,” Bruce murmurs.

“No, I’m fine,” Tony tells Pepper. “It’s my arm, Bruce was redressing it.” He looks at Bruce. “Pepper says hi.”

“Hi Pepper,” Bruce says with a smile.

“Bruce says hi back,” Tony reports. Then he frowns again. “No, I told you about the arm last night. Whatever, I don’t remember the time difference. Yeah, uh.” Tony looks at Bruce and then rolls his eyes dramatically. “I’m going to see Shuri about it tomorrow, I’ll tell you how it goes. Is the Pentagon still being a dick and threatening Rhodey with a court martial?”

Turns out Bruce didn’t have to do anything to convince Tony to see Shuri. He lies down on the bed and listens to Tony’s half of the conversation, not really paying attention to the words, just focusing on the sound of his voice. The familiarity is soothing.

God, Bruce missed him. He wasn’t aware of it, wasn’t entirely himself for so long, but Bruce feels like a subconscious part of him knew Tony was gone and wanted him back

Ten minutes later Tony hangs up and turns out the lights. He sits on the bed but doesn’t lie down. “We still have stuff to talk about,” he says quietly.

Bruce can’t see Tony’s face, his eyes still adjusting to the darkness. “Are you going to be able to sleep?” he asks.

“King of Avoidance,” Tony names him. “But yeah, I think so.”

“We’ll talk about it,” Bruce says. “All of it. Just not tonight.”

“Yeah. Yeah, okay.”

Tony stays still for a few seconds. Then he lies down so his head is pushed up next to Bruce’s shoulder. Bruce’s drumming heartbeat returns, but at the same time, the Hulk in his mind relaxes. Tony is with them. Tony is here, warm, safe.

They both missed him so much.

“Night,” Tony mumbles.

“Night,” Bruce returns.

Sleep takes a while to come for both, but neither of them move.

 

TUESDAY

 

“Was the peanut gallery really necessary for this?” Tony asks.

Bruce, Shuri, Strange, Thor, and two doctors are all concentrating on the holoscan being formed of Tony’s arm. So Rhodes, sitting in a wheelchair besides the scanbed, is the one who says “Shut up.”

“Oh, go back to talking to Germany,” Tony tells him.

“I’m on hold with the Pentagon,” Rhodes corrects.

“They put you on hold? Half of them weren’t even alive two days ago and they’re making you listen to elevator music?”

No one, Rhodes included, replies to him. Because the scan is completed and it looks-

Bruce cringes internally.

“These are not just earthly injuries,” Thor says.

“No,” Strange agrees. “I’ve never seen a muscle deformed like that.”

“Yeah, I’m going to have to call you back,” Rhodes says into the phone. He immediately hangs up and starts dialing another number. “I’m not a doctor but even I can tell that’s not good.”

No one else says anything. The scan is boasting every kind of injury imaginable: bone breaks, damaged tissue, damaged ligaments, the _muscles_ \- how on earth is Tony not in debilitating pain?

Tony looks between the scan and his actual arm, and shuts his eyes. “Okay, give it to me straight. Is this fixable or am I building myself a robot arm?”

The doctor T’Wari turns to Thor. “We’re not familiar with alien injuries. Is it possible the damage will spread?”

Thor shakes his head. “I’ve never heard of a Nidavellir weapon working like that.”

T’Wari turns to Tony. “And you haven’t noticed any worsening of your condition?”

“No.”

A voice from Rhodes’s speaker phone asks, “Are you telling the truth, Tony?”

Tony looks incredulously at his friend. “You called Pepper?!”

“Of course I called Pepper!” Rhodes says. “She’s your health care power of attorney!”

“I’m not unconscious and I’m not dying!” Tony protests. He grabs the phone with his right hand. “Pepper, I promise you, I am not dying.” He pauses and turns to the doctors. “Am I dying?”

“No,” T’Wari says.

“Not dying,” Tony repeats.

“Just might lose an arm,” Pepper says.

“Having a robot arm was probably inevitable for me,” Tony points out.

Bruce is pretty thankful that the worst case scenario only involves a robot arm, not Tony’s death. Still, he’d like Tony’s body to stay in one piece if possible. “ _Are_ we going to have to amputate the arm?” he asks Thandiwe, the doctor standing next to him.

She looks worriedly at the scan. “I can’t say for sure yet. The only other being in the universe to have this injury is now dead, and we don’t know what we’re looking at.” She sighs. “We’re still working on Mr. Coulson as well. We’ve never dealt with alien problems like this before.”

“There’s no hint of infection,” Shuri says, inspecting the scan. “It doesn’t appear to be causing damage to the rest of the body. It should be safe to keep the arm attached for now.”

“See?” Tony says into the phone. “Losing the arm isn’t a guarantee.”

Bruce can’t tell if the sound Pepper makes is a laugh or a sob. “You really are going to be the death of me,” she says.

“You can put it on your tombstone,” Tony promises.

“Give us some time to look this over,” T’Wari says. “We’ll figure out what the best option is.”

Shuri does...something with the beads on her wrist, Bruce thinks she’s transferring the scan to the doctors. “We should wrap the arm back up,” she says.

“Listen, Pep, the doctors need to do doctor things. Do you wanna talk to Rhodey?”

“Actually, could I talk to Bruce?”

Tony tosses Bruce the phone without a word. Bruce turns it off speaker and holds it to his ear. “I’m not sure how long I can talk,” he says. “Rhodes probably needs his phone back soon.”

“Not like the Pentagon is going anywhere,” Rhodes says.

“I just wanted to talk to you quickly,” Pepper says. She sounds subdued. “Tony told me about Vision. Is - is there a body? I could organize a funeral.”

Bruce steps away from the crowd and finds a semi-private corner. “The body’s gone,” he says quietly.

“Oh.” Pepper lets out a shaky breath. “I, um. I talked to Doctor Cho. She said she would come in for the funeral. I think we should still have one, even if there is no body.”

“I think that would be a good idea,” Bruce says, thinking of Wanda. “Thanks for telling Helen. How is she?”

“No idea,” Pepper admits. “We didn’t talk long.”

“And how are you?”

Pepper laughs wetly. “I don’t know. I really don’t. Tony’s okay?”

“You always worry about him to avoid worrying about yourself?”

...Shit.

“Sorry,” Bruce mumbles. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

“No, you shouldn’t have,” Pepper says, but she doesn’t sound as mad as she ought to be. “And to answer your question, yes.” Her voice breaks. “I was dead. I was gone. I don’t know what I’m supposed to _do_.”

“I’m sorry,” Bruce says, because he doesn’t have anything else.

“Just. Just, keep me updated, okay? Tell me if anything happens. Or if there’s anything Stark Industries can do.”

A thought occurs to him. “Maybe some sort of funding for New Asgard,” Bruce says. “Thor says they don’t have much. Wakanda is donating a lot but…”

“...but they’ll need a lot more,” Pepper finishes. “Resources, volunteers to help build houses and set up their technological base. Everything. Maybe I can get in contact with King T’Challa and coordinate.” Her voice sounds clearer now that she has something to focus on. “When are they getting there?”

“Thursday, if we stay on schedule.”

“Keep me posted?”

“We’ll call you tonight,” Bruce says her. “Tonight our time, anyway. What’s the time difference between Wakanda and New York?

“Seven hours,” Pepper says. “It’s past midnight here.”

Bruce smiles sadly. “Get some sleep, Pepper.”

“I’ll try.”

Two seconds after Bruce hangs up Rhodes’s phone starts ringing again. Rhodes slumps in his chair but reaches out his hand.

“Sorry,” Bruce tells him as he returns the phone.

“I should have worked at Starbucks,” Rhodes mutters as he answers.

“I don’t think he’s had ten minutes off that phone in days,” Thor says with a laugh. Then he frowns. “Damn, I’m going to have to get my own now, aren’t I?”

 

They’re in the lab heat-treating the portal’s base when Tony points to Bruce. “We’ll get you a new phone when we get Thor one, too. The biggest one there is so his massive god fingers can text.”

“Yeah,” Bruce says. “I guess.”

“You guess? How are you going to keep in touch with everyone without a phone?”

“Phones are primitive,” Shuri says.

“Phones are awesome,” Tony argues.

“You guys don’t have phones?” Peter Parker asks. He’s been wandering the labs for the past hour with wide eyes. “Then how do you have such good reception?”

“We added phone lines once we came out to the world,” Shuri says. “We needed means of communication and no one else has our technology.”

“Just how much have you opened yourselves up?” Bruce asks. “Everyone knows about you but we still had to pass through that secret barrier getting here.”

“My brother made that compromise with the tribe leaders,” Shuri explains. “Many were scared of the change. The barriers stay up for our protection. No one can enter Wakanda without our knowledge.”

“Has anyone tried?”

Shuri smirks. “Of course they try.”

“Ask Rhodey about the dumb FBI missions last year,” Tony says. “They failed miserably. Seriously, Bruce, you’re gonna need a phone. Especially for the master plan.”

“What master plan?” Peter asks.

“None of your business,” Tony says. Which is a blatant lie, Bruce saw Peter’s name on that map yesterday.

“I’ll get a phone,” Bruce says. “It’s just a bit low on the priority list right now.”

“...What’s high on the priority list?”

“Well, this,” Bruce says, gesturing at the portal base. Tony nods in deference. “And, you know. Figuring out what I’m going to do now.”

Tony furrows his brow. “You don’t know?”

Bruce hesitates for a second before admitting, “I don’t know where I can go without getting arrested on sight.”

Tony immediately turns his head away and avoids eye contact. Hulk does the mental equivalent of rolling his eyes. Shuri and Peter stare between them. It’s an awkward silence.

Then Tony says, “Yeah, I didn’t help you much on that front, did I?”

Bruce smiles even though it’s not funny. “Not really.”

Shuri groans. “Too much drama,” she declares loudly. “Let’s get back to work.”

So they do. Peter texts his friends selfies, Shuri and Tony work on the stabilizing function, and Bruce works with the other scientists on the regulator. Rocket probably could have helped a lot with this but he never showed up to the labs today.

Bruce is overseeing the final stages of the heat-treating when Tony finds him and stands next to him. Neither of them look at each other when Tony asks, “Just how angry are you about the Accords?”

Bruce thinks it’s truly terrible everyone keeps trying to talk to him like the adults they are.

“I don’t know enough about them to be angry,” he says.

“Bullshit,” Tony says. “People get angry about things they know nothing about all the time. And since I’m talking to the King of Anger Mismanagement, I doubt you’re immune from that.”

Bruce huffs, knowing he sounds like the Hulk and trying not to dwell on it. “I don’t trust governments with any of this,” he says. “I don’t know if I trust anyone.”

“Not even yourself? Hulk and Banner seem to be working things out.”

“Yeah, after existing together for over a decade.” Too much happened during that time for Bruce to ever handwave away. “I trust some people with some things. I don’t trust anyone with all of it.”

“Probably smart,” Tony says.

Bruce doesn’t know why he says it, but it feels important, so he does. “...I trust you, you know.”

Tony looks at him and then away again. “You once said you didn’t. Maybe you had the right idea the first time.”

“No. I was angry-”

“That’s a shock.”

“-and we were fighting against Ultron. You blew off my concerns about the program and it blew up in our faces.” Just talking about it brings all the emotions back up. Bruce has to force them back down again. “If you remember, I did go along with your plan in the end. Because I do trust you. If I didn’t I wouldn’t have given you Veronica.”

“How’d she work, by the way.”

Bruce laughs. “I was terrible at it. I think I’ll leave the Iron Man suits to you.”

This time when Tony looks at him, his gaze doesn’t leave. “I’d rather you use them than have to punch you in the face with them. Tell me that didn’t hurt you.”

“Of course it hurt,” Bruce says. “I trust you anyway.”

“Even after Ultron?”

“You also made Vision.”

Tony’s voice goes sharp. “I also made a shitton of weapons that killed people for decades.”

Bruce tries to keep his own voice calm. “You also brought back half the universe.”

Tony scoffs. “You think that balances it out?”

“No,” Bruce admits. “I don’t think it can be balanced.”

Tony stops fighting and closes his eyes. “Yeah. Yeah. Neither do I.”

He’s not sure if it’s the right thing to do, but Bruce gently puts his hand on Tony’s arm. Tony stills for a moment, and Bruce worries he’s overstepped, but then Tony relaxes.

“I didn’t want to hurt you,” he says. “The Accords situation, I was trying to keep you out of it. I knew - well, I hoped you’d be back eventually, and I was hoping if we played ball we could make sure there was a place for you. Obviously that didn’t work.”

“It was never going to,” Bruce says. “If they were okay killing Captain America they weren’t going to show me any more respect.”

“I didn’t want that blow up to happen either,” Tony says, voice tight. “The whole thing was a disaster start to finish, and I couldn’t even manage to keep you safe.”

“That’s not your fault.”

“Stop saying that. Maybe it is. Maybe I’m okay with it being my fault.” Tony lets out a harsh breath. “I just wanted to fix things. Sokovia freaked everyone out and I knew we needed to change. Things should change when something goes wrong. The Accords offered a pathway and I jumped on it. Granted this was before I knew about the underwater Guantanamo and just how much of an asshole your old buddy Thunderbolt Ross was. Before I figured out that a law is one thing, and how it’s enforced is another.” He shakes his head. “I messed up.”

Despite it all, Bruce smiles. “Is this supposed to convince me not to trust you? Tony, you’re talking to the king of messing up.”

“No, your title is the king of anger mismanagement.”

“Last night it was king of avoidance.”

“Well, you’re thoroughly decrowning yourself right now.” The darkness around Tony seems to finally lift a little. “I guess I’m just letting you know what you’re getting into.”

Bruce lets his hand drop from Tony’s arm. ‘What he’s getting into’ sounds like an assumption of something he hasn’t agreed to yet. He tells himself it’s for legitimate reasons, but he doesn’t fully believe himself, and the Hulk doesn’t believe him at all.

“You try to fix what you’ve broken,” Bruce says. “That’s more than I can say for myself. I just run away.”

“Then stay,” Tony says, looking at him. It’s Tony at his most intense, all his attention focused on Bruce, and Bruce’s chest tightens at it. “Stay this time.”

“I already said I would. The Hulk told you, yesterday.”

Tony’s gaze doesn’t falter. “Maybe I want to hear it again.”

“Okay,” Bruce says. “I’m staying.”

Tony claps Bruce on the shoulder. “Good,” he says, like he’s made a deal. He looks away again. “Good. Listen, I don’t know how much leverage I’m going to have after all this, and it will be hard with a Secretary of State that personally hates both of our guts, but I can try to negotiate for your legal return to the States. Get you moved into the compound. Or maybe you want to retire to Minnesota and become Green Bigfoot, I don’t know.”

Bruce really doubts Tony would be able to manage that. It’s one of the reasons why he can’t allow himself to jump. “I appreciate it, Tony. But I need a plan for the meantime.”

“You don’t have anything for the short term?”

“I want to go with Thor to get the Asgardians settled on Earth.” It’s a thought he’s been rolling around in his head since the battle was over. He wants to help Thor with the enormous challenge before him. And it would be nice to see the Valkyrie again; Bruce hopes she’s made it. “But I don’t know how long I’ll be there, or what happens after that.”

“How about Australia?”

“...Australia,” Bruce repeats blankly. He wonders if this is a bizarre setup for a Hulk joke. “Why there?”

“Because no one else is there, mostly,” Tony says. “I need a guy in Australia for the master plan. Or you could go to Asia. Strange said there are wizards in Hong Kong, but he’s mum on the details so I don’t know if there’s enough to handle the entire continent. Better safe than sorry.”

“Everywhere else is covered?”

“Except Antarctica. But I kind of doubt aliens are going to invade Antarctica and weaponize penguins.”

“I could go to Antarctica,” Bruce says. “The other guy likes penguins.”

Tony eyes him. “Really.”

“No,” Bruce says brightly. “I was joking.”

Tony rolls his eyes. “I’m devastated, Banner. Try Australia for the meantime. Maybe the Hulk will like the kangaroos.”

There’s still a voice in his head asking _What about Tony?_ Bruce lets himself voice it. “You’ll be going back to New York?”

Tony watches him for a moment. Carefully, he says, “Maybe I should move to Australia too.”

Sometimes it feels like if Bruce is running, Tony is running after him. “Yeah?”

“New York is kind of overbooked,” Tony says. “We got the Spider-kid and Strange and the Defenders and anyone who’s staying at the Avengers compound. It would make more sense for the master plan if I took over Australia.”

Bruce chuckles. “Interesting choice of words there.”

Looking amused with himself, Tony pats Bruce’s shoulder again. “So how about it? You, me, Hulk, the outback?”

Bruce doesn’t know if Australia signed the Accords, but he knows that it wouldn’t work. Still, he smiles and “I’ll let you know.”

 

Shuri has a strict “no food in my lab” policy so they return to the palace for lunch. Tony goes to find Thor first and update him on their progress, so Bruce shows up alone to the dining hall and finds it mostly empty.

“The others will be here soon,” Steve says as Bruce joins him at the table. “A lot of people are helping clean up the rubble.”

“You didn’t join them?”

“I did, I just came back early. Was too tired,” Steve says self-deprecatingly. “Still adjusting to my new body. Well, old body, really.”

“Still feeling okay with it?” Bruce asks.

“Yeah. Just need a little time to get used to everything. How are you doing with the portal?”

“It’s coming along on schedule.”

“That’s good.” Steve’s smile turns a shade uncomfortable. “What about Tony’s arm? Thor said the doctors were looking into it.”

Bruce sighs. “It’s hard to give an estimate right now.”

“How so?” Steve asks.

“There are a lot of variables. The Gauntlet did extensive damage. Wakanda’s medical infrastructure is the best in the world, but they don’t have experience in alien injuries. Tony might have to amputate his arm, or he could be fully healed tonight. We just don’t know.”

Steve nods heavily. “That’s hard. You’ll keep me updated, right?”

“You could always just ask Tony for updates,” Bruce says.

Steve gives him a wry smile. “You only say that because you weren’t around for our fallout.”

Bruce remembers Tony telling him they weren’t on speaking terms. He also remembers them protecting each other with their own bodies, before and after Bruce’s stint off-world. “I don’t know exactly what happened-” he starts, but Steve cuts him off.

“I made a mistake. A big one.” He sighs. “I hurt him.”

“From what I understand, he hurt you too,” Bruce says.

“He didn’t,” Steve says immediately. “Not really. He hurt other people, and he was a major pain in the ass and I hated his priorities and I’m still angry about it all. But he didn’t hurt me.” He pauses. “Well, aside from beating the shit out of me, but I wasn’t counting that.”

Bruce stares at him. “You’re _not_ counting that?”

Steve shrugs. “I beat the shit out of him back. We’re even there.”

Bruce almost laughs. Steve apparently has a simplistic view of physical skirmishes between teammates. Bruce is pretty sure he never had a chance of sharing those views.

“Look, I’m not going to get in the middle of this,” he says. The Hulk disagrees with that choice, of course. “It’s really none of my business. But you came together when it counted. I don’t think he’ll rebuke you if you ask how his arm is feeling.”

Steve stares into space, looking contemplative. “I’ve never really rebuilt a relationship before,” he says. “Not sure I know how to do it.”

“Well, don’t look to me for advice,” Bruce says. “I don’t think I’ve ever tried.”

Steve frowns, and then blatantly changes the subject. “Did Thor tell you about the plan?” he aks.

“What plan?” Bruce asks.

“Before rubble clean up we all had a meeting. We’ll be going to New Asgard for a week or so to help with New Asgard’s founding.” Steve smiles again. “Some people have families to get back to, but most of us are going to be there. It sounded like even the Guardians will be helping, once they come back.”

“Come back?”

“Oh, they’re just gone for the day,” Steve explains. “So is Carol Danvers. They took the spaceship to the US for a little bit. I think they were going to Missouri to visit Quill’s old home.”

No wonder Rocket didn’t show up to the labs today. “Is that safe?” Bruce asks. “The military is going to try to blow any spaceship out of the sky.”

“I think they have cloaking. And, well, they have Danvers.”

“We probably don’t have to worry about her,” Bruce says. “Is she going to be helping with Asgard too? We could use her.”

“Yeah, she said she was going to be around for a little bit. Like I said, almost everyone is. Including you, I’m assuming.”

“Yeah,” Bruce says. “I’ll be there. I’m sure Thor will be happy for all the help he can get.”

“He’ll need it,” Steve says. “I’ve never built a country before, but I know you can’t do it alone.”

“It takes a village?” Bruce suggests.

“Or a small army of superheroes,” Steve says with a laugh.

  


“It’s not that I object to an Avengers Habitat for Asgardians get-together, but this is totally interfering with the master plan.”

“Have you even discussed the master plan with everyone?” Bruce asks.

“Oh, sure, get hung up on the details.” Tony opens the door to Shuri’s lab and lets Bruce walk in first. “I can always be hopeful the next world-ending crisis will wait for a couple months.”

Thor, Shuri, and the other scientists are gathered around the Stormbreaker as Shuri takes readings. Tony quietly says, “I’m going to have to adjust all my dirty hammer jokes to dirty axe jokes.” Bruce chokes back a laugh as they join the group.

“I don’t even know what I’m looking at,” Shuri is saying, looking at the Stormbreaker with wide eyes. “Do you know how rare that is?”

“Nidavellir is one of the most incredible places in the universe,” Thor says. “They also suffered at the hands of Thanos. But perhaps one day, once all our homes have been built and rebuilt, I could take you there.”

Shuri drops her jaw. “You would take me there?”

“It would be my honor.”

She _beams_ and lets out a joyful laugh. “King Thor, I’m so glad I met you.”

All the parts for the portal get transported to the larger lab, used to manufacture planes. Then everyone goes outside to watch Thor give a demonstration of opening the Bifrost. It’s an amazing sight, catching the attention of all the people and wildlife in the area. Shuri excitedly talks about the numbers she’s recording and starts adjusting the plans.

Thor closes the Bifrost and says, “I think one day I could learn to open the it wide enough by myself. But it will take time to do so, and I want my people here before then. They’ve already been in space, traveling towards Earth, for a year.”

“That’s a long time,” Tony says.

“It is.” Thor looks up to the sky. “They need a home.”

“They’ll get one,” Shuri promises. “Just a few more days.”

The Hulk is repeating that word in his head: _Home. Home._

Bruce smiles sadly. _It’s been a while since we’ve had one of those, huh?_

It’s why he’s been having trouble figuring out his future, Bruce realizes. He doesn’t just need a place to avoid law enforcement. He needs a place to stay and rest. A home.

Thor calls for thunder and lightning, supposedly for the purpose of demonstrating how the Stormbreaker will power the device, but Tony says, “He’s just showing off. Shuri’s already got the numbers for it working as the power source. Even though the arc reactor would have also worked.”

“Your arc reactor is very sexy,” Bruce says mock-reassuringly.

Tony flips him off.

 

“Good news,” Thandiwe says. “We’re going to be able to avoid amputation.”

Tony smiles. “Well, damn. I was kind of looking forward to the robot arm.”

Bruce is relieved, but he wades back towards worry as the doctors go over their plan with a holographic video. Ultimately it’s nothing earth-shattering, at least not by Wakandan standards. It’s just that the plan is as extensive as the damage. Tony won’t undergo one treatment; he’ll undergo seventeen.

“At once?” Tony asks.

“Not at once, but one right after the other,” T’Wari says.

“That sounds like a lot of strain on the body,” Bruce says.

“Maybe where you come from,” Shuri says.

“True,” Bruce concedes.

“The plan is to put Mr. Stark under and do the entire process in the evening,” Thandiwe explains. “Then he can sleep overnight and recover.”

“And wake up in the morning fully healed?” Tony asks with doubt in his voice.

“Yes.”

Tony looks at the hologram. “It sounds too good to be true. I’m not saying you’re lying, I’m just saying that fixing this thing in less than 24 hours sounds like magic. Of course I’ve met actual wizards now, so what the hell do I know.”

“American health care is terrible,” Shuri tells the doctors.

“Are you okay with the plan?” Thandiwe asks Tony.

Tony watches the video again before answering with a question. “We’re doing this tonight?”

“If that’s okay with you, Mr. Stark.”

He looks at his arm, then at Bruce, then at Thandiwe. “Sure, let’s do it.”

“You’re taking away my lab assistant,” Shuri jokes.

“Just for one night, and you still have one left,” Thandiwe says, waving toward Bruce. Tony immediately looks away and focuses his attention on the hologram video again.

“Actually,” Bruce says, “I was hoping I could stay with Tony for the procedures. Pepper asked us to keep an eye on him, and I think Rhodes is still on the phone with the Pentagon.”

“I think he’s on a conference call with Russia now,” Tony says. He has a gentle smile on his lips. Clearly Bruce made the right choice.

“I’m losing all my lab assistants,” Shuri says. “Who will I boss around?”

“You have an entire lab to boss around,” T’Wari tells her. “And if you need more, we’ll send your brother to you.”

 

“Hey, doc,” Natasha says, falling into step with him. “How goes it?”

Bruce thought it would be awkward talking to her after last night, but he was wrong. He’s happy to see Natasha and smiles easily at her. “Honestly? I’m starving.”

“Science must burn a lot of calories,” she says.

The dining hall is loud with everyone entering at pretty much the same time. Bruce and Natasha don’t speak again until they’ve gotten their food, thanked the cooks, and sat down at the table.

“How was clean up?” Bruce asks.

“Productive,” Natasha says. “We were able to take care of everything, mostly thanks to the magic users.” She smirks as Clint sits down next to them. “Magic might have been helpful in Atlanta.”

Clint groans. “Oh, come on. Let Atlanta go.”

Bruce starts, “What happened-”

“Don’t ask,” Clint interrupts.

Bruce looks to Natasha, but even though she’s still visibly amused she doesn’t provide any further information. Instead she says, “We were asked to stay out of the actual rebuilding efforts.”

“It’s their home, after all,” Clint adds. “If I was sticking around longer I’d be happy to help, but it makes sense they’d want to rebuild themselves.”

“When are you heading home?” Bruce asks.

“We’re staying through Thursday morning,” Natasha says. “We’ll help load the helicarrier before Strange takes us back to Iowa.”

“You’re going with?”

Natasha smiles. “I’m taking the opportunity to visit while the feds are still in crisis mode. I may be wanted but they’ve got bigger fish to fry.”

“I’m not used to you being a smaller fish,” Clint remarks. “There was a time when you were the biggest fish.”

“The times, they are a-changin’,” Natasha says.

“I’m glad you’ll be able to visit the Bartons,” Bruce tells her. “I’m sure you missed them.”

Natasha’s smile grows. “I did.”

“They missed her,” Clint says. “Except Nate, who doesn’t remember you.”

“He’s not even three years old,” Natasha says. “Of course he doesn’t.”

Clint turns to Bruce. “Did I tell you about the first time he walked?”

The table fills up as Clint tells stories about his kids. The others laugh along and coo at the pictures on his phone, and Scott shows off pictures of Cassie and her giant pet ant. There’s a jealous tug in Bruce’s stomach but he tries to push it away. No, he can’t have a family. He also can’t spend his life hating those who can.

Bruce meets Natasha’s eyes during a story about Nate trying to ride the family dog. He knows they’re both thinking of their conversation in the Barton home’s guest room: two lonely, damaged people who didn’t want to be lonely and damaged anymore.

Natasha quietly says, “Wrong place, wrong time.” No bitterness at all.

Bruce speaks quietly back. “Think you’ll find the right ones?” Maybe he doesn’t want to be that for her anymore, but he did once, and he still wants her to be happy.

She looks contemplative. “I don’t know if I want it, or just want back the option,” she admits.

Bruce tries not to say this like a jackass. “I thought you said you didn’t dwell on what might have been.”

He’s pretty sure he still came off like a jackass.

Natasha doesn’t draw attention to it. “I said I try. I didn’t say I succeed.”

“That’s fair. I don’t even try.”

“I think you’re doing pretty well right now,” Natasha says. But she only thinks that because she’s not in Bruce’s head. She doesn’t know he’s mentally weighing the state of the world with the memory of Tony’s hand on his shoulder, trying to find a solution he knows doesn’t exist.

Bruce forces a joyless smile, and raises his glass to her. “To giving up things you can’t have.”

Natasha smiles much more kindly and clinks his glass with hers. “To having the things you can.”

Funny how Bruce always forgets that side of the equation.

It’s a loud meal with all the people present. Danvers and the Guardians (“it’s a good name for a band!” Quill proclaims) return and share stories from their trip to the States. Thor talks about the international work he and T’Challa have done, T’Challa explains the Wakandans’ plans for reconstruction, Shuri gives an update on the portal’s progress and Tony’s coming medical care.

Bruce expected a thousand overlapping conversations, but that doesn’t make it easy. He’s never dealt particularly well with crowds. Honestly the Hulk is better at it than he is.

At that, Hulk decides to take over for dinner. Hulk asks Scott about Giant-Man, which is a lot more interesting to him than Ant-Man. After all, Giant-Man is giant, Ant-Man is puny. So Hulk talks to Scott, then he talks to Mantis and tells her no, Hulk is not an alien, Hulk is Hulk. Then he talks to Steve and Shuri. Then Thor shares a story about the trash planet that has people laughing.

Throughout it all, Tony is smiling at him. Hulk smiles back.

Banner is still convinced he can’t have what he wants. Banner isn’t nearly as smart as he thinks he is.

 

“No, I’m not going to call you when I wake up. It’ll be 2 a.m. your time.” Tony frowns as he listens to Pepper’s response. “Yes, and every time I did you were pissed at me. I’m sorry, did you forget Paris? I remember Paris.”

Bruce removes the sling and wrappings from Tony’s arm as gently as he can. He knows the medical staff could do this themselves, but they’re currently preparing for the procedures, and Bruce just wants to help. He knows Tony’s still nervous about undergoing treatments completely new to him, and that he’s still paranoid fixing his arm will erase half the universe again. Irrational fears don’t easily go away, even with logic and evidence to the contrary.

“No, we’re in the hospital,” Tony says into the phone. He’s holding himself as still as he can while Bruce works. “The labs are too busy for this.”

The sight of Tony’s arm still makes Bruce’s stomach tighten, but he shakes it off. It will healed soon enough. Even if the arm did have to be amputated, the sacrifice would have been more than worth it.

Bruce lowers the arm to Tony’s side. On an impulse he tangles their fingers together, softly as he can. He watches as Tony’s face twitches into a smile.

“I think Rhodey already went to sleep,” he’s telling Pepper. ”The onslaught of phone calls finally stopped, who knows for how long, let him rest while he can. But Bruce is here. He’ll keep you updated.”

Bruce nods. Tony’s damaged fingers move just slightly, trailing against Bruce’s.

“Yeah, you too. Bye.” Tony hangs up and hands over his phone. “If you could occasionally text her and tell her I’m not dead, she’d appreciate it.”

Bruce puts Tony’s phone in his pocket and sits down next to him. They’re not touching anymore but they’re just close enough for Bruce to feel his body heat. “How’s she doing?”

“As good as she can be, I think.”

“And you?”

Tony sends him a lopsided grin. “Freaking out.”

It can’t be easy for Tony to be openly vulnerable. But he’s been doing so all day. Maybe Bruce should return the favor. “I was mad when you removed the arc reactor from your chest.”

Tony does one of his full-body blinks. He turns to Bruce and stares. “...What, you were secretly rooting for my death by shrapnel?”

Bruce knows that’s a joke, so he ignores it. “Do you remember when we first met?”

“Uh, obviously. Loki, alien army, nuke in a wormhole.”

“I meant your first of many don’t-hate-the-Hulk pep talks,” Bruce says. “You compared the other guy to your arc reactor.”

“Yeah, I did,” Tony says. “I called it a terrible privilege.” He frowns as he puts the pieces together. “So, Extremis came along and we found a way to remove the shrapnel, and you were mad because...I got fixed, and you didn’t.”

“I’ve never claimed to not be a jealous asshole,” Bruce says. “I was happy the shrapnel was gone, but when you moved back to New York you were a normal person. And I was angry at you for it.”

“Your first mistake was thinking I was normal.”

“Tony-”

Tony waves him off. “No, I get what you’re saying. It’s stupid as fuck, but it makes sense. You never mentioned it before.”

“Of course not,” Bruce says. “What would I have said? ‘Keeping yourself alive feels like you’re betraying me?’”

Tony processes that. “...Yeah, that wouldn’t have gone well at all,” he says. “I assume you’re telling me now because you’re not angry about it anymore.”

“And to distract you from the current surgery you’re about to have,” Bruce admits. “But, no, I’m not angry about it anymore. I grew up a little. Became a little less of a dick.”

Tony chuckles. “I think you’re always going to be somewhat a dick, Doctor Banner. Trust me, I would know.”

Bruce smiles. “You’re not that much of a dick, you know.” Tony looks like he’s got a joke lined up, but Bruce continues on before he can say it. “A true dick wouldn’t care if healing his arm wiped out half the universe.”

“That’s not dickishness,” Tony says, “that’s not being a genocidal maniac. Frankly I don’t think clearing that bar should be a compliment.”

“Tony,” Bruce says gently, “healing your arm won’t take away half the world.”

Tony falls quiet and closes his eyes. “Yeah. Yeah, I know.”

T’Wari enters the room. “Okay, we’re ready.”

Bruce stands up but keeps his eyes on Tony. “You gonna be okay?” he asks.

Tony answers with a question. “You gonna be there when I wake up?”

“I will.”

“Then I’ll be okay,” Tony says simply, and lies down.

Maybe it really is as simple as that.

Bruce isn’t allowed in the room for the procedures, but he’s allowed to watch from outside the transparent barrier walls. Not that he really knows what they’re doing. Wakandan medicine would be far beyond his abilities even if he _was_ an actual medical doctor. But he stays and watches, assuring the Hulk that Tony will be fine.

Or maybe he’s just assuring himself. Or maybe assuring the Hulk means he’s assuring himself anyway, Bruce isn’t a philosopher. He just wants to keep an eye on Tony and being there helps his worry.

Of course there isn’t anything to worry about. Everything goes well with no complications.

The hospital has discharged many of its patients from the battle, so the medical team takes Tony’s sleeping body to his own recovery room. Bruce sits on the reclining chair at his bedside and calls Pepper. They talk for a while, not just about Tony. They talk about Stark Industries’ coordination with Wakanda on supplies for New Asgard, about projects SI was working on before, about the brief constitutional crisis that happened when the President was among those who vanished.

Then Pepper mentions the debates breaking out in the government about what changes, if any, should be made to the Accords.

“The press knows the wanted Avengers helped save the world,” she says. “But the whole thing is incomprehensible to a lot of people. Magic stones erased half the universe? No one knows what to do with that.”

Bruce doesn’t know himself. “It’s going to take a long time for everyone to adjust.”

“If adjustment even happens.” Pepper pauses, and then says gently, “Not everyone wrote you off, you know. Some people still believed in you.”

The words vitalize the hope Bruce realizes he’s still holding onto, even though he didn’t want to have it in the first place. He needs to let it go. “Even after Johannesburg?” he asks.

“Even then. They might not have understood it but people wanted to believe you were good.”

Bruce snorts. “I heard something about a Ben and Jerry’s flavor.”

He can practically hear Pepper’s smile through the phone. “It wasn’t bad,” she says. “But this. Half the world was gone. For those who were scared, of you or anything else, this made everything worse. And our laws don’t account for mind control, or power beyond comprehension. Neither does our culture. A decade ago nobody even knew SHIELD existed, and now we’re dealing with magic. The world has crossed a lot of lines in a short time.”

“It’s been one upheaval after another,” Bruce says. He lets loose a sigh and forces himself to ask the question. “Do you think I’ll ever be able to come back?”

“It’s hard to say,” Pepper says carefully. “If things calm down, if the world has a chance to adjust to this new status quo without something else happening…”

She trails off and Bruce finds himself staring at Tony’s face. “We can’t count on that,” he says.

“Even if there isn’t, these things take time.” Pepper’s voice sounds rough. “I’d estimate it’d be at least a year or two before we could get you back here.”

It’s nothing he hadn’t expected. Bruce knew it was possible he would never step foot in the country again. There was a part of him that had hoped anyway. He wonders if that part of him was the Hulk.

“I’m sorry,” Pepper says.

“Don’t be,” Bruce says immediately. He closes his eyes and leans back in the chair. “I’ve been prepared for that. And I’ve got a place to go.” He lets himself acknowledge the path he was probably always going to take. “Thor told me I would always be welcome in New Asgard.”

“That’s great. You’d be safe there.”

“I’m going to be okay,” Bruce tells her, and funnily enough he believes it. “I have a place to stay, friends to be with. Something to work on. That’s a lot more than I’ve had at other points in my life.”

“I know. But Bruce, if there’s anything I can do, let me know. I’ll help in whatever way I can.”

“I know. You always do.”

Then they discuss less important things, whatever else comes to mind. Bruce is pretty sure they’re both using the other as a distraction: Bruce from thinking about the future ahead of him, and Pepper from going back to whatever disasters she has yet to clean up.

They talk until Rhodes comes by to visit. He talks to Pepper while Bruce looks at Tony and tries not to miss something he never had.

The Hulk is frustrated with him and Bruce doesn’t get why. There’s never been a guarantee of what he hoped for. This is just another thing Bruce has wanted and not gotten.

Others visit after Rhodes leaves. Steve and Natasha drop by for a short while, followed by Fury and Hill. Then Thor comes in and pulls up a chair beside Bruce, sighing heavily.

“You alright?” Bruce asks.

“I’ve been asked to speak at a meeting of the United Nations.”

“That’s good, isn’t it? It will help your legitimacy.”

“Yes,” Thor says. “But I’m afraid I’m not great at diplomacy.”

“You’ll be fine,” Bruce says. “T’Challa is sure to go to bat for you. And with all you’ve done on Earth there will be people willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.”

“I’m sure,” Thor says, and gives him an uneasy grin. “I’m still not looking forward to it.”

Bruce smiles back. “I’m sure.”

“How fares our friend?” Thor asks, nodding toward Tony.

“Everything went well.”

“I figured as much,” Thor says. “Stark created an element from the stars, and was the first mortal in history to weild a weapon of Nidavellir. It took its toll but he is strong and will recover. And how are you?”

Bruce steadies himself. “I want to take you up on your offer to live in New Asgard.”

Thor blinks, steals a half-second glance at Tony’s sleeping body, blinks again, and then beams.

“Wonderful!” he says, genuinely thrilled. “I’ll be happy to have you there.”

“I really do appreciate it,” Bruce says, trying show the proper gratitude. “Knowing that I have a place to stay and, you know, breathe-”

“Of course!”

Thor stands, pulls Bruce up and embraces him. Bruce laughs and hugs him back.

“To be honest, I’m selfishly glad you’re coming to stay,” Thor says like he’s sharing a secret.. “I have lost many friends recently.”

Bruce pulls away. “I know. Everyone needs friends by them.”

“And we’ll have each other.” Thor puts his hand on Bruce’s shoulder. “Thank you, Bruce.”

“Thank you,” Bruce returns.

“I would say we should celebrate, but you’ve got a friend to watch over. We’ll share a drink tomorrow!”

“Absolutely,” Bruce says, despite the small grief sitting in him.

_Puny Banner run._

_It’s not running,_ Bruce tells the Hulk. _This is what’s best for me._

_Asgard good. Puny Banner still run._

Bruce wishes he could pretend he didn’t know what the Hulk was talking about. Unfortunately denial doesn’t seem to be in his skill set anymore.

 

WEDNESDAY

 

Bruce wakes up when Phil Coulson enters the room.

“Sorry,” Coulson says, paused in the doorway. “I didn’t mean to disturb you.”

“It’s fine,” Bruce says. He sits up in the recliner and waves him in.

Coulson smiles. “Thanks.” He sits in the chair Thor was sitting in last night. “Fury said he was doing fine. I just wanted to check up on him myself.”

Bruce looks over at Tony, still sleeping, then back to Coulson. “He’s okay. What about you?”

Coulson shakes his head. “Apparently I cheated death again. I’m going to be fine.”

An awkward silence reigns over them, both of them watching Tony in his sleep. Bruce had barely spoken to Agent Coulson before the attack on the helicarrier; it’s none of his business what happened to him afterward. But Bruce remembers the way others spoke about him.

“It’s past midnight in the U.S. right now,” he says. “But maybe later you could call Pepper Potts. I’m sure she’d love to hear from you.”

Coulson laughs a little. “I keep having to deal with the consequences of coming back. From the dead or the future or a fascist digital universe.” Bruce...isn’t even going to ask. “Coming back causes problems.”

Bruce finds himself looking at Tony’s face again. “Or the problems are caused by leaving in the first place.”

“Yeah,” Coulson says quietly. “I’m starting to learn that too.”

Tony wakes up an hour after Coulson leaves. It looks like he’s fighting himself over whether he should stay asleep. When he finally opens his eyes he searches for Bruce first.

“Morning, sunshine.” His voice croaking a little.

Bruce gets a glass of water. Tony carefully sits up and carefully takes the glass with his left hand. The arm is fully healed, of course, and looks and works as though it was never hurt in the first place. Tony drinks and sets down the glass to stare at both of his hands.

“It feels wrong,” he says. “I just had the best sleep I’ve had since open heart surgery, and my thoroughly ruined arm feels better than ever. It’s too easy.”

“You can’t stop, can you?” Bruce asks.

Tony gives him a doubtful look. Bruce returns it.

“Tony, nothing about this has been easy. And you’ll probably have to save the world again one day. Maybe you could let yourself stop carrying the weight of the world for two seconds.”

Tony is quiet for a long moment. “You think so?” he finally asks.

Bruce shrugs. “It takes one to know one, I guess.”

Tony reaches out and takes Bruce’s hand. Neither of them move until the medical team arrives.

 

The doctors take a long time to do finishing check-ups. By the time Bruce and Tony make their way to the dining hall, many of the others are already finishing breakfast.

“Frankly, I’m offended,” Rocket is saying to his teammates. “Tell me, since joining up with you morons, when have I ever tried to steal something from a place that didn’t deserve it?”

“Sovereign,” Quill says immediately.

“Xandar,” Gamora says.

“Terma,” Drax says.

“Easik,” Mantis says.

“I am Groot,” Groot says.

Rocket groans, reaches into his pack, and hands over whatever he stole.

“How’s the arm?” Strange asks as Bruce and Tony sit down.

“Good as new,” Tony says.

Bruce doesn’t pay much attention to the conversation that follows. He eats and tries to focus out the Hulk’s anger. The Hulk needs to accept what’s happening. Bruce does too, really.

“I, uh,” Bruce starts, and the people around turn to him. “Well, Thor graciously offered to let me live in New Asgard. And I’ve decided to take him up on it. I’ll be staying there long-term.”

Across the table, Tony stills.

Nobody else shares that reaction. “Cool!” Peter Parker says.

“That’s great,” Natasha says, smiling.

“I don’t mean to show favoritism,” Thor says to the group. “The offer is open to all of you. But considering Bruce’s situation...”

“It’s different with you,” Steve agrees. “I’m glad you have a place to stay.”

Bruce smiles back before looking over at Tony. He’s watching him, face blank, eyebrows slightly raised. He’s waiting for an answer to an unasked question.

“I know some of the Asgardians now.” Bruce speaks to the larger group, but he keeps his eyes in Tony’s direction. “Well, they know the Hulk. I’ll be welcome there, and I’ll be able to provide some help, and if Thor’s willing to take me-”

“Not even a question,” Thor tells him.

“Harboring political refugees is going to be a rough start for a new country,” Natasha says.

“Maybe,” Thor acknowledges. “But I would rather have a rough start than not do what is right.”

“I don’t mean to cause problems,” Bruce says. “I just. Need a home, you know?”

Tony deflates and nods in understanding.

Hulk is angry with him. Bruce is angry with himself.

“We still have some of your stuff at the Avengers compound,” Rhodes tells him. “Old clothes and files and everything. We can have it sent to you.”

“Thanks,” Bruce says. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Then Tony is interrupting by loudly asking why, exactly, “Agent Dead” isn’t dead after all. Which brings the conversation away from Bruce, and he can pretend that nothing happened and he’s not disappointed.

_Puny Banner run_.

_Yeah_ , Bruce thinks. _Puny Banner run._

 

Bruce honestly doesn’t notice until he’s standing up that Tony’s left the table.

“Stark left with Rogers and Barnes,” Natasha tells him, standing up as well. “They’re having the world’s worst conversation.”

Bruce furrows his brow. “By which you mean?”

Natasha eyes him. “If you don’t know, it’s not my place to say.”

“I missed everything,” he reminds her.

“Still not my place.”

Bruce accepts that and they leave the dining hall together.

“I’m glad you’re going to have a home,” Natasha says.

“Thanks,” Bruce says. “What about you? Planning on staying with the Bartons long-term?”

“I’m still wanted. I’m not putting them in danger like that.”

“Then you don’t have any plans?”

She shrugs. “I wait and see what the world’s going to be like now. That’s my plan.”

That sounds exhausting. “It’s hard not knowing where you’re going to be tomorrow,” he says.

“Yes,” Natasha says. “It’s who I am, though. I couldn’t give it up for you and I can’t give it up now.”

“Wrong place, wrong time,” Bruce repeats.

“In _so_ many ways,” Natasha agrees.

“Think you’ll ever stop?” he asks. All of a sudden he wants that for her.

“I don’t know,” she says. Her voice is calm and contemplative. “Maybe one day. Sometimes I think I can’t ever stop. Then I look at Fury, and wonder if I still want to be doing this when I’m his age, and think I want to stop tomorrow.”

“There’s got to be some middle ground.”

“Sure. But where’s the line?” she wonders aloud. “There’s always going to be another job to do. One of these days I’d have to make a decision to not get involved, and possibly let people die for it.” She closes her eyes and visibly lets the thought go. “I guess I’m still trying to figure it all out. But I’m glad you did.”

Bruce laughs. “I am nowhere near figuring it all out. Just a few things.”

“Any pointers?” Natasha asks.

“Well, the three years in space as my angry alter ego did wonders.”

Natasha laughs a little. Then they turn a corner and see Tony, Steve, and Bucky all standing together in silence, turning their heads up at Bruce and Natasha’s appearance like they’ve been walked in on doing something illegal.

Natasha gives Bruce a pointed look. “Have fun,” she says, and turns back around and leaves.

“Oh thank god,” Tony says, visibly relaxing. “Time for building shit. We done?”

“We’re good,” Bucky says.

Steve frowns. “I don’t-”

“We’re good,” Bucky repeats, and bodily pushes Steve down the hallway.

“You couldn’t have come at a better time,” Tony tells Bruce as they start walking toward the labs. “Just enough time to say what was necessary with barely any time of angry silence.”

“You’re welcome,” Bruce says, confused. “Everything okay?”

“We’re done,” Tony says. “Barnes says we’re good, but I kinda doubt that.”

“Why?”

Tony fixes Bruce with a stare. “I tried to kill him.”

Which. Explains quite a lot about what happened with the Accords situation. “Ah,” Bruce says. “Yeah, that’ll do it.”

“He’s oddly cavalier about the whole thing. Barnes, I mean, Cap still wants to punch my face in, but since when does he not? I offered Barnes a chance to punch me in the face and he wasn’t interested at all. What’s with that?”

“No idea,” Bruce says. “Maybe he doesn’t prescribe to the same viewpoint of casual violence.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Tony mumbles. He screws up his face. “Would have been nice for him to catch onto that _before_ he killed my parents.”

...Well. Natasha’s comments suddenly make a lot of sense. Bruce feels like he did when he was with a space prince and his adopted murderous brother plotting to kill their even-more-murderous sister: like he’s in the middle of a soap opera.

“Obviously,” Tony continues, staring straight ahead, “that was while he was brainwashed and in zero control of his actions. Which I knew, but I still tried to kill him. In my defense, Rogers hid this fact from me for over a year, I was running on two days without sleep, and I am an awful excuse for a human being.”

“Tony,” Bruce says gently. “If you’re expecting revulsion because you tried to kill someone in a blind rage, you’re talking to the wrong person.”

Tony rubs his face with his hands. “So, that’s what being the Hulk feels like.”

Bruce looks to the ground, but the Hulk speaks up. “Hulk angry.”

“I knew that,” Tony says to him. So far he’s barely missed a beat when he realizes he’s talking to a different part of Bruce’s psyche, just carries on the conversation. Bruce kind of admires him for that. “I didn’t know what the anger felt like, exactly. Not that I’ve never been murderously angry before. I have. Just not like that.”

Hulk huffs. “Hulk always angry. Hulk wrong sometimes. But Hulk try, like Tony try.”

“Yeah, and how many died when I failed?”

Hulk rolls his eyes. “Tony stupid. Banner stupid. Try again.”

Tony snorts and shakes his head. He seems doubtful. “Yeah, okay. I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Banner stupid,” Hulk repeats.

“Well I can’t do anything about that,” Tony says. “If you got a problem with yourself, you have to take it up with yourself.”

“Hulk not stupid,” Hulk defends. “Banner stupid.”

“You’re the same person, you know.”

Hulk growls at him a little before switching control back to Bruce. Bruce rubs his forehead. “It’s a bit more complicated than that,” he says.

“You have the strangest and worst identity issues in the goddamn world,” Tony says casually.

Bruce swallows, because he knows what the Hulk is angry about, and he doesn’t know how Tony really feels about Bruce’s decision. Hurting Tony was the last thing he wanted to do, but wanting not to hurt someone has historically meant very little in Bruce’s life.

“Whatever,” Tony says. “We’re not going to fix you in the next ten minutes. Let’s go finish a space portal.”

 

The whole lab is anxious to finish. Rocket curses Earth’s ‘shit-ass tech’, Tony and Shuri bemoan improvements they can’t make because of the short timeline, and Bruce is carrying out tasks he only half-understands. All in all there isn’t time to think about much else. It’s chaotic, but it blocks out the Hulk’s grumbling for a few hours.

Everyone is exhausted when they finally break for lunch. Before Bruce can head back to the dining hall, Tony throws an arm around his shoulders.

“Got an idea,” Tony says. “Let’s go out to lunch.”

Bruce fights the urge to run away. “You don’t want to be around everyone else?” he asks.

“We haven’t gotten a chance to sight-see yet, and we sure as hell won’t have a chance tomorrow. Let’s go get some grub.”

“I don’t exactly have cash on me,” Bruce points out.

Tony physically waves that off. “Please, I’ll buy.”

Bruce raises an eyebrow. “You have Wakandan money?”

Tony stops. Blinks. Turns to Shuri. “You got a currency exchange around here?”

They do not, so Shuri trades some of her money to Tony for multiple hundred-dollar bills. Bruce has no idea what the exchange rate is but he’s pretty sure Shuri ripped him off. Tony doesn’t seem to care, he just takes the money and leads the way out of the labs.

Bruce finds he doesn’t mind the long walk to the market. They haven’t spent much, or really any, time outside since the battle ended. He and Tony walk in silence, enjoying the fresh air and seeing the people start to rebuild what was destroyed in the attack.

Tony asks FRIDAY how to say a few phrases in Xhosa as they wander around, until he abruptly stops at a delicious-smelling small grill. “We have a winner,” he declares, and wastes no time in ordering.

The two women working the grill are clearly trying not to laugh at Tony’s pronunciation, but they’re kind and serve the food quickly. Bruce can’t help but wonder if one or both of them disappeared when Thanos snapped his fingers.

“Order up,” Tony tells Bruce, handing over one of the two sandwiches. “Hope you enjoy it, this date cost four hundred bucks.”

And Bruce’s melancholy train of thought completely crashes.

“This is a date?” he croaks out.

“Is it not?” Tony returns, not making eye contact. “We’re going out to lunch just the two of us, that sounds like a date.”

Bruce stares down at his food. A moment ago he was starved, and now eating is the last thing on his mind.

“I realize this is a really shitty date,” Tony continues, taking a bite of his sandwich. “Really short, we need to be back at the lab soon, and we haven’t talked for half of it. But a shitty date is still a date. Goddamn, this is delicious.”

“Then it’s not that shitty,” Bruce defends instinctively. Tony looks back at him and god, that gaze is heavy. Bruce gestures to his food. “You did buy me a good lunch.”

“You haven’t eaten any of it.”

“I’m taking your word for it.”

“Eat the damn sandwich, then we’ll talk.”

Bruce takes a bite of the damn sandwich. It does taste good.

They eat as they walk back to the labs, not talking or looking at each other. Tony finally breaks the silence when he finishes his food, wipes his hands on his pants, and says, “So Asgard.”

Bruce swallows his bite. “Asgard.”

“I get it,” Tony says. He’s looking forward on their path, not at Bruce. Bruce is stupidly grateful for that. “It’s probably the best place for you on Earth. And going for what’s good for you is a big improvement over your old ‘I’m a hopeless monster who deserves nothing’ mindset. I just don’t get why you didn’t tell me.”

“I did tell you,” Bruce says, trying not to be offended by Tony’s description of him. “That’s why we’re having this conversation. And you didn’t even tell me this was a date.”

“Fine, you’re right, that’s a bit of the pot calling the kettle. But we were-I didn’t imagine it, right? There was, is, something happening, and I thought when you decided you would tell me first, not as part of a general announcement in front of a talking tree.”

Bruce wants to roll his eyes and be annoyed, but the truth is he’s still upset with himself, and his heart is twisting around the word _something_. “I’m sorry,” he says, and that gets Tony looking at him, but Bruce doesn’t meet his eyes. “I didn’t really decide until last night. I guess I was just...holding onto hope that things would be calmer. Better, politically. That I could-”

He cuts himself off, trying to figure out what else to say that isn’t an incoherent mess of words. But he doesn’t have anything else.

“I’m sorry,” he repeats. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“I didn’t think you did,” Tony says. He probably has more faith in that than he should. “I just wanted you to feel comfortable telling me.”

“I know. I just...”

They stop right outside the labs, standing in a cool breeze. Bruce looks up but Tony’s eye contact is too much right now, so he drops his head again. It’s the only way he can make himself be honest. And Tony deserves that, after everything.

“I wanted to be with you,” Bruce finally admits. “And I had to give it up.”

Tony’s silent.

“It’s nothing new. Giving up things I can’t have, I do it all the time. I just...let my hope get the better of me. So I’m sorry if you felt strung along, or something. I really didn’t mean to hurt you.”

It’s a shit apology. But all Tony says is, “What the hell, Banner, you don’t have to give it up.”

Bruce looks up again. He can’t read the expression on Tony’s face. “Uh, I kind of do.”

“You don’t want to,” Tony presses, staring into him.

“...What does that matter?”

“‘What does’-oh my god.” Tony throws up his hands. “Of course it matters, that’s all I care about. Confirm it, you want to be with me?”

Bruce presses his lips together. “...I’ve wanted a lot of things, Tony.”

Tony immediately says, “Yeah, that’s not an answer.”

Bruce rolls his eyes in annoyance and breaks. “Fine, _yes_. But we don’t always get what we want.”

“And why does this fall under that category?” Tony challenges.

“What, you want the numbered list?” Bruce scoffs.

“Yes. Explain your reasoning, big guy, because I’m lost.”

“Because of everything!” Bruce says, frustrated and annoyed that he apparently has to spell this out like an idiot. “Because we just spent three years separated by _galaxies_ . Because I have had exactly one serious relationship in my life, and doing anything long distance sounds like a terrible idea. Because I’m just barely hanging onto my sense of self because the Hulk’s decided he gets _my_ body too, whenever he wants. Because I’m not going to risk the hell of sneaking back into the country for something I don’t even know would last. Because I…”

He runs out of steam and takes a deep breath to steady himself.

“Because I don’t get everything I want,” he says. “I never have.”

“No one gets everything they want,” Tony says. His eyes haven’t left Bruce in what feels like ages. “But this is different. if you want me, you can have me.”

Much as Bruce wants to believe it, he knows better. “No, I can’t.”

“Seriously?” Tony demands loudly. “I’m saying yes and you’re just ignoring that?”

Before Bruce can respond, Hulk does it for him. “Banner stupid.”

“Yes, thank you, Hulk.” Tony gestures toward him. “Banner stupid.”

Bruce takes back control and grumbles out, “I don’t know what calling me names is going to accomplish. It’s not stupid.”

“Nope, Hulk and I came to a consensus, it’s stupid.”

“And you’re just ignoring everything I said?” Bruce argues.

“I didn’t ignore it,” Tony says, “it’s just not relevant. I don’t care if we were apart, I don’t care how many people you’ve shacked up with, and I can’t even remember what else you said because I got overwhelmed by your stupidity.”

Another shock of anger lets the Hulk take back over. “Banner stupid,” he says again.

“Sorry I ignored your complaints about this earlier,” Tony says. “You were totally right.”

Which really doesn’t help Bruce’s mood. He physically tries to shake the Hulk out of his head. “Tony, I can’t argue with you and myself at the same time.”

“Then stop arguing.” Tony’s voice is heavy as his gaze. “You want me, you can have me.”

“How?!” Bruce demands, kind of fed up with Tony ignoring the obvious problems. “I can’t go back to the States-”

“Then I’ll come to New Asgard with you.”

Tony drops it like a comeback, and not the life changing sentence it is.

Bruce stares at him. Tries to say something. “What” is all he manages.

“What, you think I was kidding out the outback?” Tony says. “I’ll move to New Asgard.” His face twitches, like he’s already making plans for it in his head. “I’m not crashing any party here, Thor said the offer was open. I move there, problem solved, boom, done.”

Bruce can’t think. He’s at a loss for words.

“That’s the solution, right?” Tony asks, his voice suddenly calm.

Yes, it’s a solution. A solution Bruce never once considered because it’s not an option. It’s impossible. Except for how Tony is offering it with both hands.

“You have a life,” Bruce says, almost separated from himself. “You have - a home, and important...everything, I can’t ask-”

“I’m pretty sure you have never asked for anything in your goddamn life.” It’s an interruption but Tony doesn’t raise his voice at all. He sounds steady and sure and completely open. “It’s my decision, shit Banner, take the deal.”

Of course he wants to. But since when does Bruce get things like this? “You’re sure?” he asks.

Tony says, calm and deep, “I’m sure I’m in love with you.”

And that’s.

They stare at each other, and Bruce feels claustrophobic from it but he doesn’t know what else to do. Everything inside him is filled with feeling, his own and the Hulk’s, and he’s not sure how he’s still standing from it.

Tony looks...nervous? “Hulk said it first,” he says, as casual as he can, “I’m just returning the favor.”

Bruce tries to remember the last time he heard those words. He can’t.

“Did I freak you out?” Tony asks. He still looks nervous.

“No,” Bruce manages. He isn’t freaked out, but he’s...overwhelmed. He knows this is real, and yet it feels so surreal, impossible to touch. “Just.” He swallows. “No one’s said that to me in a long time.”

“Oh,” Tony says softly. He searches Bruce’s face and takes a deep breath and continues, “Well, I do. That’s...look, that’s how I feel. But that’s just feelings. The doing things, the talking and buying you lunch and sharing things, we haven’t done that. And I want the chance to. If you’ll let me.”

He says it like a vow. Bruce feels like he’s drowning in all the things he wants to promise back, everything he wants to say in return, and it’s all stuck in his throat.

“Let me,” Tony says, and it’s both a plea and question, and it breaks the dam inside him.

“Yes,” Bruce says.

Tony’s entire face lifts. “Yes?”

“Yes,” Hulk says.

“ _Yes,_ ” Bruce says, and he and the Hulk move as one, stepping forward, placing his hands on either side of Tony’s head and kissing him hard.

Tony gives him no hesitation at all. His hands find Bruce’s arms and he kisses back, all in one fluid motion. His mouth is warm and tastes vaguely like bread and Bruce feels like he’s breaking apart. He’s not sure he’s entirely himself; the Hulk wants this just as much as him, they’re both kissing Tony and holding onto him tighter than Bruce can remember holding onto anything.

He doesn’t ever want to let him go. It occurs to him that he doesn’t have to.

Bruce kisses him until they both run out of breath. Tony presses their foreheads together as they quietly inhale, neither of them moving.

“I missed you,” Tony whispers. “I mentioned that, right? I missed the hell out of you. So I’m sticking to you like glue, come hell or high-water. Okay?”

Bruce closes his eyes, smiling. The inside of his head is calm, the Hulk finally content, Tony’s skin under his fingertips. “Okay,” he murmurs.

“Okay,” Tony repeats. He grips at Bruce’s sleeves. “Okay.”

The next kiss is gentle. Bruce sinks into it, trying to grasp onto moment and keep it there.

And then he’s hit in the head with an extraterrestrial welding torch.

“Really?!” Rocket is shouting from the open doors to the lab. “We’re waiting on you for this? Get back to work!”

“What the hell?” Tony questions loudly. “Did I just get cockblocked by a racoon?”

Bruce covers his mouth to keep from laughing.

“Want me to throw a whole ship at you?” Rocket threatens. “Come on already!”

Tony picks up the torch and points it at Rocket. “Am I allowed to kill him?” he asks Bruce.

Bruce loses the fight with his laugh, so Tony’s annoyance drops away and grins back at him.

Bruce is pretty sure the feeling growing inside him is joy. It’s been a while.

 

Interruption aside, Bruce is thankful for the monumental work of the portal. It gives his mind something to focus on other than the memory of Tony’s mouth on his own.

Not that it’s a complete distraction. Every so often he finds himself staring at Tony across the lab, who of course notices almost every time and makes a big production of winking back at him.

The hours and the work continue on until suddenly they’re staring at the completed device. Shuri double-checks everything, triple-checks it, and then decides it’s time for a test run. They bring it outside, stand the required distance back, and call for Thor.

Tony finds Bruce and stands next to him, but his body language is completely different from earlier, his face creased, his arms crossed. For a second Bruce thinks Tony is about to say he changed his mind.

Instead, Tony says, “You know what’s weird? We spent days working on this thing, and it only occurs to me now that it’s about to help open a damn wormhole. Hopefully nothing bad gets spit out.”

It’s possible that Bruce’s tendency to expect the worst is a bigger problem than he thought. “Are you okay?” he asks.

“Mostly,” Tony says. “I need to introduce you to BARF. Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing,” he explains at Bruce’s confused expression. “It’s basically high tech trauma recovery. Helped with a lot of it, but right now I feel like I’m going to upchuck.”

“We dealt with whatever came out from the other side before,” Bruce says. “The day something else comes, we’ll deal with that, too. But it’s not going to happen today.”

“Oh yeah?” Tony challenges. “Since when did you become an optimist?”

Without really thinking about it Bruce replies, “Since lunch.” Then he does think about it and feels embarrassed by it. He quickly starts talking again to cover it up. “It’s been three days since the last crisis ended. Give the universe time to punch back.”

Tony’s staring at him. “Okay, I didn’t listen to a word you said after ‘since lunch’. You’re secretly a giant romantic, aren’t you?”

Bruce doesn’t look at him. “Shut up, Tony.”

Tony, of course, doesn’t shut up. “This is gonna be fun,” he says as he throws an arm around Bruce’s shoulders. “You want shmoop, I can deliver it. What’s the Hulk’s favorite flower? Something green? Do green flowers even exist?”

How on earth can Bruce be annoyed and smiling to himself at the same time?

Tony’s grip turns tight for the test run. Thor opens a gate to an empty patch of space which seems to cover the entire sky, turning blue to black and decorated with stars, more than big enough for the ship holding the stranded Asgardians. Shuri and the rest of the scientists cheer at the success.

Thor closes the gate and Tony immediately relaxes and brings Bruce in for a victory kiss. It’s already starting to feel familiar.

 

The party is somewhat impromptu; Shuri’s on a high after making her first wormhole and wants to celebrate. Considering how quickly everything comes together, though, Bruce feels like something must have already been in the works. The dining hall is full of food and music and conversation. With Peter Parker and Scott Lang being the first to leave tonight, it feels like a farewell party.

The music is being played from the device Shuri presented to the Guardians that holds thousands of songs. Quill cried and gave the Shuri a somewhat snotty hug while the Dora Milaje eyed him awkwardly.

Bruce starts gathering a plate until a huge glass of beer is being shoved into his hands.

“I promised you a drink,” Thor says, beaming. Tony’s with him and they’re both carrying similarly large glasses. Really they’re more like jugs. “Tony told me he’ll be moving with us.”

“He hugged me so hard I think he cracked a rib,” Tony remarks, but he’s smiling.

“Makes much more sense now that I know he’s coming with you,” Thor says. Before Bruce can ask what that means, Thor raises his glass and proclaims, “To friends! To a new home! To Asgard!”

“To Asgard!” Bruce and Tony echo, because why not. Bruce takes small drink of his beer, Tony takes a healthy gulp, and Thor chugs down all of his in about six seconds.

“Showoff,” Tony says.

“Asgardian,” Thor corrects. “I will do it again. For Asgard!” He hugs Bruce and Tony both and then heads off to get another beer.

“He makes my old party persona look like a priest in comparison,” Tony says. He smiles at Bruce. “Congratulations on a completed space portal, Doctor Banner.”

They’re simply talking to each other, nothing they haven’t done before, but it feels different. Brighter, Bruce thinks. “Congratulations, Mister Stark.”

“See, that just sounds like you’re making fun of me for not having a PhD. Though I guess that’s my own fault for never finishing any of the programs I applied for. And it still sounds better than Mister Stank.”

“...‘Mister Stank’?”

“Ask Rhodey, it was the greatest day of his life.”

Tony’s still beaming at him and Bruce is pretty sure his own face looks ridiculous. He’s not used feeling this happy.

“So should we also be chugging down our beers?” Bruce says, because he wants to talk but isn’t sure what to say.

Tony looks at his enormous glass. “I sure hope not. I don’t want to insult Thor but my frat boy days are well behind me. Hopefully an Asgardian alcohol tolerance isn’t a requisite of Asgardian citizenship.”

“I doubt it,” Bruce says. “Maybe the Hulk could down this, but I sure couldn’t.”

Tony grins. “Drunk Hulk? See, now I’m kind of looking forward to that.”

Bruce lets his smile deepen. “You would.”

Tony winds up splitting his beer with three people, and Bruce hands his off to Carol so she and Thor can have a drinking contest. Thor wins, but it’s a close call. The Hulk thinks he would have beaten them both and sends Bruce memories with the Valkyrie in Sakaar as proof.

Bruce is in a corner wondering about the Valkyrie, hoping he’ll see her tomorrow, when Natasha finds him. She’s smiling.

“So, there’s a rumor going around,” she says, voice full of teasing. “Tell me, is the raccoon a reliable source?”

Bruce can feel the heat rising on his neck. “Apparently he’s a compulsive thief, so…”

Natasha gently nudges him with her arm. “You don’t have to hide that you’re happy. It’s not going to hurt me.”

“It’s not just that,” Bruce says, even though she mostly hit the nail on the head. Sometimes it’s unnerving how well she reads people. “I value my privacy.”

“Tell that to the Hulk,” she says. “He dropped a confession in the middle of a team argument.”

“...I had forgotten that,” Bruce says.

Natasha chuckles. It’s a nice sound but he can’t fully trust it.

“Are you sure it doesn’t hurt?” he asks quietly. “Because I think if the situation was reversed, I wouldn’t take it that well.”

Natasha makes a face at him. “Bruce, you’re not that great.”

“I didn’t mean-” he starts, but her expression morphs into a smirk. He sighs. “You still like teasing me, huh?”

“If I wanted to tease you, I’d talk about your questionable taste.”

Bruce can’t help it - he laughs. “Isn’t that kind of insulting yourself, too?”

Natasha raises an eyebrow. “Please say you’re not implying you have a type Stark and I both fall into.”

“Not a type, just.” Bruce fumbles for words. “Maybe there are some similarities there.”

Natasha makes another face. He thinks it’s an honest one this time. “Maybe,” she says, and lets it go. “But I’m happy for you. I’ll send you two a housewarming gift.”

“There needs to be a house, first,” Bruce says. Then he stops. “Wait, how do you know we’re going to be moving into the same one? Because _I_ don’t know that.”

“Bruce,” Natasha says, looking at him with a mix of exasperation and fondness. “Come on.”

They look at each other for a long moment before Natasha shakes her head and gently pulls him back to the party.

They talk to Sam for a little bit, and then Bruce shakes hands with Shuri and all the scientists. He talks to T’Challa and Okoye, tries to be respectful and professional, but instead they wind up discussing Starbucks drinks. Then Bruce spends a lot of time alone at the table. The party is nice but he’ll never be great in huge groups of people. He’d rather eat dinner by himself.

Tony sits down next to him as the music changes over to Journey, the reaction to which is about half cheering and half groaning. Bruce watches a racoon and a tree dance together to “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’”. Cross that off the bucket list.

“I called Pepper,” Tony says. “Apparently she likes it when I give her more than twenty-four hours notice I’m moving to a country that technically doesn’t exist yet. It’s not like she has to do anything, I got robots doing my packing.”

Bruce feels vaguely guilty for indefinable reasons. “You’re still her friend,” he says. “She’s probably going to miss you.”

“But I’m still going to see her all the time” Tony says. “I’ll have to be in the U.S. constantly for SI stuff. And saving Rhodey from drowning in politics. And arguing about whatever changes are going to happen with the Accords.”

It’s another reminder of all the reasons Bruce never thought Tony staying with him was an option. “Are you even allowed to move?” he asks. “I don’t know if the Accords require you to-”

“Hey, no panic spirals,” Tony interrupts. “Accords don’t apply to me anymore. I had FRIDAY send in my resignation to Capitol Hill Sunday night.”

“Oh,” Bruce murmurs. Well, that solves a number of problems while also creating new ones. “Sunday night?”

“It may have been putting several horses before the cart,” Tony acknowledges. “But, at the time I was still ordered by law to arrest you, and I thought condemning you to an underwater prison would be a really terrible way to start off a relationship.”

Bruce rolls his lips together. “I don’t want to keep you from anything.”

Tony furrows his brow. “What the hell are you keeping me from?”

“You just said you retired from Iron Man for me.”

“It wasn’t just for you,” Tony says. “I also didn’t want to go through another round of trying to arrest Cap’s ass. No one needs that. Plus it’s been like two years since my last retirement, I could use another extended vacation.”

“Is that what this is?” Bruce asks.

“Probably,” Tony says. “I’m basically Elton John going on his eighteenth farewell tour at this point. Whenever I think I want to stop, I’m back a year later.” He puts his hand on Bruce’s arm. “Look, you don’t have to worry. You will anyway, but you don’t have to. I’ve got this, we’ve got this, don’t have back off from what you want once you finally have it.”

That’s easier said than done. “I’m going from having no one to having someone who’s changing his entire life to be with me,” Bruce says. “It’s not normal.”

“Is that what you’re worried about?” Tony rubs his thumb over Bruce’s sleeve. “That’s an easy fix. I do what you need from me, and you do what I need from you. Isn’t that how it’s supposed to work?”

“And what do you need from me?” Bruce asks.

Tony doesn’t even stop to think about it. “I need you to stay. I need to know that you’re going to be there.” He pauses, pressing his lips together for a moment before continuing. “And when you do need to leave - you need some time alone, have to get out of the house for a couple hours because I’m driving you nuts, or whatever, just an example that’s inevitably going to happen - you come back. No matter what. Stay, and if you have to leave, come back. That’s what I need.”

And maybe Bruce is missing the forest for the trees, but he’s distracted by part of that little speech. “We’re moving in together?”

Tony blinks. Frowns. “Yes?”

Bruce hangs his head. “Damn, Natasha was right.”

“I mean, that makes the most sense? New Asgard won’t have infinite houses, and we have already lived together. Maybe it’s going to a little fast relationship-wise, but - hang on, Red knows this? Just how fast has the news traveled?”

“Fast.” Bruce tries to keep his voice casual despite the nerves.

“Guess I shouldn’t be surprised,” Tony says, shaking it off. “Nevermind. Do you want to have your own place? You could have your own place.”

“No,” Bruce says, surprising himself by telling the truth. “I don’t.”

“Cool, that’s settled, then.” Tony looks remarkably unworried about the swift jump they’ve taken to ‘living together’ from ‘not together at all.’ Bruce wonders if Tony has more faith in them than he does. Or maybe he just has more faith in Bruce.

“I’m not running off on you,” Bruce says, because he doesn’t want to let Tony down. “I know my track record isn’t great, but I won’t.”

Tony gives him that soft, full smile. Before he can say anything, he’s cut off by Quill’s whoop of joy as the music changes to “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”. Bruce raises his head to watch Quill immediately take Gamora in his arms and start dancing with her.

“Great idea,” Tony says. He stands up and turns to Bruce. “Wanna dance?”

Bruce stares at him. “Really.”

Tony shrugs. “All the cool kids are doing it.”

It’s a bit of an exaggeration, but a lot of people have decided to join Gamora and Quill. Sam and Steve are dancing together, even though it’s very obvious Steve hasn’t danced in his current body in eighty years. Shuri is dancing with her mother, Coulson is dancing with Hill, and Peter Parker is awkwardly holding hands and swaying with Mantis.

“Come on,” Tony says. “Humor me.”

Bruce is unsure, but he sighs and stands up. Tony pulls him away from the tables to an empty patch in the floor. Bruce can’t remember the last time he danced. But Tony’s only interested in holding him and stepping back and forth, so it doesn’t feel like it matters. Bruce can see a couple people watching them curiously from across the room but that doesn’t feel like it matters either.

“You okay?” Tony asks suddenly. “I can’t always read you, tell me this is okay.”

Bruce has a thousand things he’s not okay with. But he’s also happy, here in Tony’s arms, and wants to enjoy it. For now he lets himself stop worrying and smiles.

“I’m just concerned about you,” he jokes. “I don’t know how you’ll survive until Asgard gets its technology up and running. You’ve had an A.I. micromanaging your life for decades, and right now there isn’t even wifi.”

Tony makes a production of rolling his eyes, but he doesn’t look annoyed at all. “It won’t take that long. Asgard’s going to get top of the line everything, smartphones, high-speed internet, the works. I cannot wait to see Asgardian twitter.”

“What about the master plan?” Bruce asks. Tony makes a face at him. “Is it okay for us and Thor to live so close together? You were saying it’s best to be spread out. Mentioned something about Australia.”

Tony fixes him with a bright grin. “Bruce,” he says, “I have to tell you this, and I mean it with all my heart: Australia can go fuck itself.”

Bruce can’t remember the last time he kissed someone in a crowded room.

Funny, how being with Tony feels like a jump-start to his life.

 

Peter Parker is very polite in shaking everyone’s hands as he and Scott Lang prepare to leave. Peter is also enthusiastic about trying to get everyone’s cell phone numbers.

“I don’t have a phone,” Bruce reminds Peter when he turns to him.

“Okay, but text me when you get one.”

“Sure,” Bruce says, because he’s trying not to run from people anymore. “It was nice to meet you.”

“You too, Doctor Banner!” Peter says, shaking his hand. “And the Hulk! You were really cool. And hey, welcome back to Earth and everything. Maybe I could come visit you and Mister Stark in Asgard sometime.”

Bruce is pretty sure he’d be a terrible host for house guests, but Peter just waves and goes to hug Tony goodbye. Bruce turns away to offer them a little privacy and shakes Scott’s hand.

Before long, Stephen Strange is creating a portal in the middle of the hall. “New York first,” Strange says. Bruce can see the city’s tall buildings and an afternoon sky through the portal. “Lang and I will deliver Parker home, and then I’ll take Lang to San Francisco.”

Scott gives Hope one last hug before clapping Peter on the shoulder. “Ready to go home, kid?”

“Kinda,” Peter admits.

“No need to act ashamed of it,” Scott says. “It’s always nice to go home.”

Hulk agrees. He’s looking forward to it himself.

 

The walk back to their guest room is calm. Tony talks to Pepper on the phone with one hand and wraps his fingers around Bruce’s wrist with the other. Bruce just lets himself fall into the familiar sound of Tony’s voice again.

He showers first to give Tony more time to talk. When he’s out Tony immediately says goodbye to Pepper, hands off the phone to Bruce, and jumps in the shower himself.

“He’s not one for tact,” Bruce comments.

“Never was,” Pepper says. She sounds more cheerful than she has all week. “Hey, I’m happy for you guys.”

Bruce closes his eyes and sits on the bed. He and Pepper had always gotten along well, and he considers her a friend, but he’s not sure they’re especially close. He’s grateful for that now because it makes it easier to say what’s on his mind.

“Natasha told me the same thing,” he says. “Honestly, it makes me feel guilty.”

“Why would you feel guilty?” Pepper asks. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I know,” Bruce says, even though he’s not entirely sure he does. “I just didn’t want to hurt her. Or you.”

“It doesn’t hurt me,” Pepper says. “I...a part of me is still sad, a little, we couldn’t stay together. I’m sad he’s moving. But I’m not sad that he’s with you. This is a good thing.”

“It feels good,” Bruce says. “Maybe that’s the problem.”

“Oh, Bruce,” she says, halfway towards chiding. “Being happy isn’t a sin.”

He knows it, logically, but he doesn’t believe it yet. Maybe it’s another thing he can try to learn, like ‘the Hulk isn’t a soulless monster’ and ‘I don’t deserve to be miserable forever’ and ‘others like me as a person’.

“I’m working on it,” Bruce tells her. “I guess I’m still figuring out how to be happy.”

“You’ll get the hang of it,” Pepper says. “I did.”

They say goodbye not long after. Bruce sets Tony’s phone on the table and lies down on the left side of the bed, same as when he and Tony slept in this room on Monday. It’s like a pattern has already formed.

Tony gets out of the shower quickly, dries his hair even quicker, and flops down next to him.

“I’m pretty sure this is the part where we have really good, really long, really hot sex,” Tony says. “But I gotta be honest with you, Banner, I’m exhausted.”

Bruce smiles to himself. “Then go to sleep.”

“This is a rain check, though. Tomorrow.”

“You sure about that?” Bruce asks. “Tomorrow we’ll be founding a new country, and probably sleeping in tents.”

“We’ll be sleeping on the helicarrier,” Tony corrects, and grimaces. “And honestly, doing it on the helicarrier sounds even worse than doing it on the ground. Fine, rain check for an unspecified future time.”

Bruce laughs lightly. “It’s fine. I haven’t had sex in over a decade, I can wait.”

Tony stills. Stares at him. “A decade.”

“My transformation kind of complicated my personal life-”

“Your transformation happened in 2005,” Tony says. Somehow Bruce isn’t surprised he memorized that. “Thirteen years, seriously? No wonder you’re always angry.”

It’s a stupid joke but Bruce laughs at it anyway. Tony grins and it’s amazing, really. Bruce isn’t _good_ at being happy, it’s not something he ever truly got the hang of. But damn if it’s not so much easier when Tony’s around him.

Tony turns onto his side, expression shifting to something more contemplative. “Can I talk to the Hulk for a minute?” he asks.

The shift to the Hulk using Bruce’s body is almost seamless, now. Bruce closes his eyes and Hulk opens them. He looks at Tony, and Tony looks back. It’s good. It’s right.

“Tony,” Hulk greets.

Tony smiles. “Hey, big guy.” He rests a hand on Hulk’s arm. “How are you feeling?”

Tony said he wanted to talk ‘for a minute’, not have a long conversation about feelings. Hulk frowns at him. “Sleep.”

“We will, just a second.” And Tony looks _harder_ at him, if that’s possible. His look is almost a physical presence. “When I told Bruce I loved him, you were included in that. You know that right? You are Bruce, how I feel about him is how I feel about you. Okay?”

Hulk remembers how Tony hugged him after the fight was over. He understood then. Banner just needed to catch up. “Hulk knows.”

“Good,” Tony says. “I wanted to be sure.” He grips Hulk’s arm for a moment before pulling back. Hulk doesn’t want him to pull back. He takes Tony’s hand, and Tony waits for whatever Hulk has to say.

Hulk remembers that hug, and everything it meant

“Hulk left,” he says. “Hulk sorry.”

Tony tilts his head a little, studying Hulk, and says, “Don’t be.”

That seems like stupid, wrong thing to say. “Tony angry.”

“Yeah, I was,” Tony says. “But you came back. So I forgive you, and I’ll keep forgiving you as long as you stay.”

That makes more sense. “Okay.”

“Okay.” Tony’s face changes again. He regrets. “Listen, while we’re apologizing for stuff. I’m sorry I made you think you’d have to kill me. I didn’t mean to hurt you like that.”

It did hurt Hulk. It was surprising, too. Hulk spent a couple years barely getting hurt at all. Then Thanos hurt, and Tony’s ideas hurt, all close to each other. Hulk’s still angry about it. But if Tony can forgive him, Hulk can forgive him back.

“Tony save the world,” Hulk says.

“Yeah. You know how it goes.”

Maybe he can forgive him, but Hulk’s still angry. “Tony stupid,” he says.

Tony glares. “I already apologized, don’t rub it in. And hey, I’m not stupid. I’m a genius.”

“Tony stupid. Tony genius. Tony everything.”

It’s a statement of fact, but Tony’s eyes and smile go soft. “You really are a secret romantic, aren’t you,” he murmurs.

Hulk rolls his eyes. It’s the same thing he told Banner. It’s wrong. Hulk’s not mushy. Hulk mushes others. “Tony sorry?” he asks.

“Tony sorry,” Tony confirms.

Hulk huffs and nods. “Hulk okay.”

“Okay,” Tony says. Then his voice goes back to tease. “Awesome, we got our first apologies of the relationship out of the way. Things are going good so far, don’t you think? The first ten hours or so have been good.”

Hulk pulls on Tony’s hand. Tony comes closer easily, and Hulk kisses him. It’s weird, but then Tony shifts and takes his head in his hands and kisses back and that’s good. That’s right.

Tony turns off the lights and then lies against Hulk’s side, his head on Hulk’s shoulder, his arm around Hulk’s middle. It’s like how Tony and Banner slept on Monday, but more, closer, without fear. Hulk likes it. Hulk wonders if Tony would sleep like this with Hulk’s real body. Maybe he would.

“Goodnight,” Tony says, quiet.

Hulk isn’t sure if it’s him or Bruce who says goodnight back. Maybe it’s both of them. Maybe it’s always just been both of them.

 

THURSDAY

 

Bruce jolts awake Thursday morning to the opening vocals of “You Give Love a Bad Name.”

“Attention, morons!” Rocket proclaims over the iconic Bon Jovi instrumentals. “I am broadcasting to all your guest rooms through Shuri’s lab, because some of you are still asleep!”

“Kill him,” Tony grumbles against Bruce’s chest. Bruce smiles to himself, and then winces as Rocket’s voice continues its loud tirade.

“In case you assholes have forgotten, we have a kingdom to create today. So you all need to get your asses up. You have fifteen minutes to get to the dining hall before we drag you out of bed through violence. Let’s get a move on, people!”

“Seriously,” Tony mutters as Rocket’s voice and the music both finally go away. “Please tell me it’s _wabbit season_.”

“He’s a raccoon,” Bruce replies.

Tony groans and tries to bury his head under Bruce’s body. “It’s a Looney Tunes reference, don’t get so technical.”

Bruce begins to sit up, but Tony pulls him back down over himself. The kiss instantly steals away any motivation to get out of bed. Bruce’s eyes are still heavy with sleep and he thinks he’d be happy wrapping his body around Tony’s and never moving again.

Tony pulls back just a little. “How long do we have until the tiny mammal murders us?” he asks against Bruce’s lips.

“Not nearly long enough,” Bruce answers.

Tony mutters, “Cockblocking raccoon, I swear to god.” Bruce chuckles and they both reluctantly let go of the other.

Tony rolls out of bed and Bruce watches him slowly yawn and stretch. It’s like a memory straight from his time in Avengers Tower, except Bruce doesn’t feel guilty for looking now.

“Moving day,” Tony says. “They say it’s one of the most stressful life events. Get breakfast so you’re not hangry _and_ angry.”

Bruce forces himself to sit up. “You really are an asshole.”

“Yep. That’s why this,” Tony says, gesturing between them, “is going to work.”

Bruce gives him a doubtful look. “Because we’re both assholes?”

“Absolutely. You and me, assholes and monsters and all-around fucked up human beings.”

“You’re not that bad, you know,” Bruce says.

Tony gives him a look. “Neither are you.”

Bruce pushes against the doubt inside him. “I’m starting to believe that.”

Tony smiles. “Yeah, finally.”

 

Packing is a bit of a logistical nightmare, not helped by everyone starting off the morning annoyed by Rocket’s wake up call. There’s no large enough land near the palace to park the helicarrier, so everything needs to be transported to Wakanda’s west coast, where it’s been since the battle ended on Sunday. Bruce is happy that Steve and Hill lead the charge. Better them than him.

Everyone contributes where they can. Planes and jets get loaded and reloaded quicker thanks to Pym Particle Disks and both Strange and Wanda’s magic. Thor and Carol simply fly and carry things themselves.

When everything is finally packed, it’s time to say goodbye. Not only will the group be leaving Wakanda, but Strange will be taking Clint, Natasha, and Rhodes to the U.S.

“I probably should have been in D.C. days ago,” Rhodes says. “But I’m calling it administrative leave.”

“No,” Tony says. “Call it a threat. It’s just a taste of what they’ll have to deal with on their own if they court martial you.”

Rhodes pulls Tony down for a quick hug, and then does to same to Bruce. It’s surprising but nice. T’Challa stares directly at Bruce, bows, and laughs to himself. Bruce is never forgiving Rhodes for that. He shakes hands with T’Wari, Thandiwe, the entirety of Shuri’s lab, and Shuri herself.

“It was great to work with you,” Shuri says, smiling.

“Since I arrived here you’ve been able to everything we needed,” Bruce says. “Thank you for all your help.”

“Of course,” Shuri says. “What good is intelligence if you don’t do anything good with it?”

While Thor and T’Challa embrace, Clint gives Bruce some kind of clap-handshake-hug that Bruce awkwardly tries to follow. Judging by Natasha’s laugh, he doesn’t succeed.

“Give him a break, Nat,” Clint says. He looks happy to be heading home. He pats Bruce on the shoulder and steps aside for Natasha.

“I will not give you a break,” she tells Bruce. “You’re a huge dork.”

Bruce shrugs. “I hear chicks dig that.”

He wonders if that reference is a bridge too far, but Natasha just grins. “Keep in touch this time, will you?” she says. “Maybe we can be friends.”

Bruce mentally replays a history of their relationship, complete with attempted murder by Hulk. “That wouldn’t be awkward?” he asks.

“My best friend was sent to assassinate me by an organization being secretly run by Hydra,” Natasha points out. “Being friends with you would be nothing.”

It’s a fair point. It’s also relieving. “I’d like that,” Bruce says.

They hug each other and Natasha parts with a chaste kiss on his cheek. “I’ll see you soon, I’m sure,” she says.

Bruce wants to leave her with some better words than just ‘goodbye’. So he says, “Tell the Bartons hi for me.”

He chose right; it makes Natasha smile.

 

Being back on the helicarrier is surreal. It has changed very little in the passing years, despite the battles and the damage it’s seen. Bruce almost feels like he’s traveled back in time.

The Hulk rumbles in his mind. He doesn’t like being here. Neither does Bruce, really, but he’s trying to let it go. There’s no cage with his name on it anymore, no Infinity Stone he’s trying to track, no god trying to provoke him from afar. He is safe for the trip north to New Asgard.

Safe, but he still feels off-center. Bruce heads to the lab.

Like the rest of the helicarrier, it looks largely the same. Not all the destroyed equipment was replaced, but it has the same floor, the same walls. Bruce wonders if the computers here still have records of the search for Loki and the Tesseract. He slowly circles the lab, brushing his fingers on countertops and screen edges. When he turns around, Tony’s in the entrance, staring at him.

“I had a feeling you’d come find me,” Bruce says.

“It was that or listening to Hank Pym hate me from afar,” Tony says, slowly stepping inside. “And it’s not like you’d disappear to anywhere on this thing?”

“It’s weird, isn’t it?” Bruce says. “Being back.”

“Not quite the word I would use,” Tony says. He’s still focused on Bruce, and he looks worried. “You doing okay?”

“I’m fine,” Bruce says. “We’re fine.”

Tony nods and finally looks away. He wanders the lab as Bruce did, walking around and studying what’s changed and what’s the same. The rumbling inside Bruce’s head calms as he watches him. He remembers meeting Tony on the bridge and working with him in this lab, how it was the easiest thing Bruce had done in years.

He wants to kiss him. It takes a couple moments for Bruce to remember he can. So he does.

When Bruce pulls back Tony is smiling, eyes crinkling. “Any particular reason for that?” he asks.

“Seemed like the thing to do,” Bruce says.

Tony brings Bruce in for another one. Bruce puts his hands on Tony’s sides and has to force himself not to squeeze too hard.

Tony steps back a little, studying him.

“What’s wrong?”

“Your eyes are green,” Tony says. “I am still talking to the Banner side of the mind, right?”

“It’s me,” Bruce confirms, but he’s confused. He doesn’t feel the Hulk more than he has all day. “Sorry, I didn’t-”

“It’s fine,” Tony says, waving him off. “Just wanted to know exactly who I was macking on at the moment. How’s the identity crisis going?”

Bruce chuckles. “Only you would ask that.”

“You’re the only one I have to ask.” Tony’s still watching him curiously. “I don’t think you have ever been completely separate, but if it turns out I’m actually in a relationship with two people instead of just one, I’d like to know.”

Bruce looks away. He can see his reflection on a screen, and it looks like his eyes are brown again.

“Can I say it’s maybe 1.2 people?” he asks.

“You can,” Tony says, “but I might make fun of your math.”

Bruce relaxes a little at the joke, and it makes him realize just how tense he got just now. “We’re not two separate people. But we’re not one individual, either. We overlap but not completely. It’s...difficult to put into words.” He smiles self consciously at Tony. “You sure you want to sign up for that?”

“I already did sign up,” Tony says. “I’m just trying to figure out what the fine print is.” He’s so much calmer than Bruce feels.

So Bruce lets go of his worry. This is not a high-stakes moment, he tells himself. He’s not going to lose anything here.

In fact, Tony inches his face closer. “Can we go back to the kissing now?” he asks.

“I thought you said you didn’t want to do anything on the helicarrier,” Bruce says, though he’s a little reluctant to.

“Because it’s the helicarrier. I’m not opposed to cameras in general, but I really don’t want Fury involved in my voyeurism. What, you got any other ideas to pass the time?”

Which is how they wind up at the old conference table playing Texas Hold’em with an assortment of other superheroes and aliens. Melinda May has an unbeatable poker face, Tony gets into an argument with Groot despite not speaking the same language, and Bruce finds himself thinking that this is a life he can live.

 

There’s more than open fields and an ocean waiting when they finally arrive. The caravan from Stark Industries is already there, featuring volunteers, donations, whatever Tony decided he wanted to move with him, and Thor’s friends. Jane Foster, Erik Selvig, and Darcy Lewis all wave at the helicarrier as it lands in the ocean. Thor is the first one off and hugs all three at once.

“When I agreed to move here I didn’t realize it was going to be this cold,” Tony says as he and Bruce make it to shore. “Screw you, Banner, I want a refund.”

Bruce takes it for the joke it is. “Tell Friday to get you a heavier coat.”

“Whenever our house gets built, you’re so sleeping on the couch,” Tony tells him, and beats him in saying hi to Selvig.

There’s no sense in wasting time. Carol helps Thor unload the portal from the helicarrier and Jane immediately starts setting it up, Shuri instructing her through the a band of Kimoyo beads T’Challa gifted to Thor. Jane is bubbling over with excitement, trying to carry conversations with Shuri and Thor at the same time, barely blinking at the raccoon who starts providing her necessary tools.

Tony finds Bruce’s side and stays there, quiet and tense. Bruce knows he’s having issues about the wormhole again. Physical affection is not something Bruce is used to initiating, but he tries anyway, putting his hand on the small of Tony’s back.

“I’m fine,” Tony says.

“Okay,” Bruce says. He doesn’t move.

There are gasps when Thor opens a gate in the sky, far above the ocean. The wormhole shows stars maybe millions of lightyears away, followed by a ship approaching the portal and coming through.

Thor closes the gate as soon as the ship lands in the ocean beside the helicarrier. In seconds it has a ramp connected to land, and its doors are opening to reveal hundreds of faces.

“Asgard!” Thor calls, beaming. “Welcome to Earth!”

Everyone on shore cheers. The Asgardians begin to file out, waving back to their king and looking around at their new home. Bruce tries to steady himself, hoping-

And the Valkyrie steps out onto land, grasping Thor’s arm. She looks tired and sad, but she stands tall. She’s here.

The other guy takes control, transforming completely from Bruce’s body into the Hulk. For the first time in Bruce’s memory, it doesn’t hurt at all.

The Hulk roars triumphantly, causing some gasps from the crowd and cheers from the Asgardians. Beside him Tony says, “Next time take your shirt and jacket off first, there’s no reason to waste clothes like that.”

She was exchanging words with Thor, but now the Valkyrie is beaming and running toward him. Hulk runs to meet her and throws her onto the ground. She laughs and jumps back up and punches his arm.

“You’re alive!” she says. “You made it!”

“Hulk strong,” Hulk tells her. “Angry Girl strong.”

She grins. “Stronger than you.”

“Hulk stronger.”

“I doubt it.” A little awkwardly, she smiles at him and says, “I’m glad you’re here.”

“Hulk stay,” Hulk says.

“So Thor says. I’m happy to hear it.”

The Valkyrie is smiling but Hulk can tell she wants to smile bigger. She’s not used to friends. Well, Hulk wasn’t either.

She looks around. “So this is Midgard, huh?”

“Earth,” Tony corrects as he strolls up to them. “We call ourselves Earth. Hulk, want to introduce us?”

Of course Tony has to butt himself into everything. “Angry Girl,” Hulk says, pointing at the Valkyrie. “Stupid Tony,” he says, pointing at Tony.

“Ex _cuse_ me?” Tony demands. “We’ve been in a committed relationship for thirty hours and you’re already introducing me like a long-suffering wife? What happened to the good times? Why do you assume _you_ are the long-suffering wife? You’re the one with the anger management issues.”

“Tony?” Valkyrie asks.

Tony stops his tirade, clears his throat, and reaches out his hand. “Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, another one of your future neighbors.”

She stiffly shakes Tony’s hand twice, like she’s following a bad tutorial on Earth customs, and introduces herself. “My name is Brunnhilde.”

“He mentioned you,” Tony says. “Glad you made it.”

She nods stiffly. “He mentioned you, too.”

“Really?” Tony asks, beginning to grin. Hulk groans, worried Tony’s going to call him a mush again.

Valkyrie looks around at the gathering, Asgardians reuniting with Thor or introducing themselves to the volunteers. She’s trying to hold herself calm and proper. But in less than a minute she asks, “So, is it time to start drinking yet?”

“Drinking?!” Thor exclaims across the field. “Already?!”

“One year of boredom and death in space!” Valkyrie says, very different from her stilted formality with Tony.

“I’m concerned about you,” Thor says.

“It’s none of your business, your majesty.”

“Stop calling me that as an insult!”

“I never promised I would stop drinking, and if alcohol is available-”

“I like your friend,” Tony announces to Hulk. “She’s great. We’re totally having her over for dinner, babe.”

“Hulk not babe,” Hulk growls at him. “Hulk strong.”

“You can be a strong babe,” Tony defends.

“Hulk not babe!”

“All right, all right! So that’s a no on the pet names, got it, we’re still working out the kinks here-”

And then Loki materializes out of nowhere and stabs Thor in the stomach.

“Oh god!” Thor shouts, a cross between pain and joy.

“Oh _god_ ,” Selvig says, horrified.

“What the _fuck_?” Tony demands as Thor and Loki embrace each other.

“He faked his own death to help me protect the survivors,” Valkyrie explains, but by the time she’s finished saying that Hulk has already thrown Loki into the ocean.

  


While Valkyrie fishes Loki out of the water and Thor successfully prevents a dozen people from reenacting the Battle of New York, Hulk says hi to the rest of the Asgardians. They’re happy to see him. They say hi and smile when they learn Hulk will be living there with them.

Thor finishes wrapping his stab wound, and then calls for everyone’s attention. He slams his axe into the ground and shouts, “I declare this land New Asgard!” It’s a good speech. Hulk roars and everyone cheers.

They’ll begin building in the morning. For now they celebrate. Everyone shares food and drink and laughs and dances. Hulk doesn’t particularly care about any of that. Instead, he plays tug-of-war with anyone who challenges him. They have a find a really long rope so groups of fifty can pull against him. Hulk wins every match until Valkyrie and Thor take him on together. Then Valkyrie and Thor want challenge each other, and Hulk decides he’ll let Banner come back.

When Bruce wakes up, Tony’s looking down at him. “Got anything so I don’t flash the refugees?” Bruce asks.

“I wouldn’t mind being flashed,” Tony says, but he helps Bruce stand and hands over a stack of clothes. Bruce remembers most of it from his closet in Avengers Tower but the Metallica t-shirt is definitely not his. He gives Tony a pointed look but puts it on anyway.

Tony shamelessly ogles him as he hands over a bottle of water. “Heaven forbid I have the fairly standard kink of liking other people wearing your clothes.”

Bruce tries not to smile. “I wore your back-up suit from the quinjet on Sakaar.” Tony raises his eyebrows in interest. “It got destroyed when I turned back into the Hulk.”

“Then it died a noble death. And I have other clothes you can wear.”

Bruce shakes his head, losing the fight with his smile. “Yeah, okay,” he says, and downs half the water bottle.

He gathers himself some food while watching the other tug of war match ups. Carol Danvers and Valkyrie challenge each other, followed by Tony and Drax, Wanda and Strange (both using only their powers), and a best-of-five round of the SI volunteers versus the Wakanda volunteers.

Thor cheers from the sidelines. Bruce can’t help but feel grateful his friend looks happier than he has in forever.

Some of the Asgardians reintroduce themselves to the Hulk’s alter ego. They’re very casual about it. Bruce doesn’t know what Asgard was like before it was destroyed, but it must have been fantastical enough for them to take a giant green monster in stride. It’s almost funny that they’re already fine with something Bruce struggled with for so long.

It was a good choice, coming here. Bruce thinks he would have been happy even if he had been forced to give up Tony.

But, Bruce thinks as Tony takes his hand, he hadn’t been. For the first time Bruce got what everything he wanted.

 

Tony walks into the small room carrying a large box. “Sleeping over in the helicarrier was definitely not on my bucket list,” he says. “My body’s not made to sleep in these tiny beds.”

Bruce frowns at the box. “What’s that?”

“Special delivery for Doctor Banner.” Tony sets the box on the bed Bruce claimed. “Stuff you left at the Avengers Tower. This isn’t all of it, but there’s a couple things that should interest you.”

“Such as?” Bruce asks as he takes off the lid. Then he chuckles. “Oh, my phone.”

“We can get you a new one,” Tony says, “but this one still works.”

Bruce sets the phone aside and looks in the rest of the box. There are his old glasses, a couple paperbacks, a laptop, a pair of sweatpants, and a deep green tie that Tony once gifted to him as a joke and Bruce has never worn.

“Hilarious,” Bruce says, holding up the tie.

“We really need to get you on a St. Patrick’s day float,” Tony says.

“You make that joke every year.”

“Don’t roll your eyes, Banner, you know I’m your favorite.”

Bruce changes into the sweatpants and repacks the box, save for the phone. Instead he sits on the bed and unlocks it. There’s still a message from three years ago: FRIDAY’s group text to the Avengers, letting them know there were five minutes to liftoff for Sokovia. It feels like finding an antique that once belonged to a dead person.

There’s also, curiously enough, a text from an unknown number dated from a few hours ago: _let Loki know that Clint still has an arrow with his name on it :)))_

“Word travels fast,” Bruce says. “We might be getting a visit pretty soon.”

“Great,” Tony says, reading the text over Bruce’s shoulder. “Thor may be a god, but even he will have trouble stopping Barton from shooting out Loki’s eyes.”

“I’m kind of glad Loki’s here,” Bruce confesses. “Now I’m not the only one Thor’s protecting from various world governments.”

Tony snorts and sits down on his own bed. “New Asgard’s going to be everyone’s new worst friend.”

Bruce texts Natasha back: _Hulk threw him in the ocean._

Natasha sends a thumbs up emoji. Bruce smiles at the screen.

“So the Romanoff thing.”

Bruce looks up. “The Romanoff thing,” he repeats slowly.

“The whole ex-boyfriend, ex-girlfriend conversation is supposed to happen at some point, right?” Tony frowns. “Though maybe not in the first 38 hours. Really, I’m not great at this.”

Bruce sets down the phone. “Natasha’s not an ex-girlfriend.”

“It was kind of close enough,” Tony says, which is probably true. He nods at the phone. “You guys keeping in touch then?”

“Yes,” Bruce says, trying to stop himself from feeling preemptively defensive. “I still care about her.”

“Good,” Tony says. Which was not what Bruce was expecting. He furrows his brow and Tony shrugs. “Caring about people is good, I thought. What about Betty Ross, you still in contact?”

The last time he heard from Betty was after the Battle of New York, an email saying she was happy when she saw him on TV. Bruce sent a quick response and she never replied. He wonders where she is now, what she’s up to. He wonders if that email was her way of finally saying goodbye after being repeatedly robbed of the chance.

“No,” Bruce says. “Haven’t talked to her in years.”

“Oh,” Tony says. “Well. You and Romanoff still talk at least. You should talk. Care about her, text her, love her for all I care.”

“Really,” Bruce says slowly, considering. Tony sounds casual enough, but he looks...stiff. Almost a little nervous for the subject matter. Bruce realizes Tony isn’t actually talking about Natasha. “You still love Pepper,” he says, not a question.

“Yeah,” Tony replies immediately. “It’s Pepper. Our relationship may have changed from ‘thinking about marriage’ to ‘friends who wear matching workout clothes’, but I’m always going to love her. How I felt about you didn’t go away, even if I didn’t pursue it, so that won’t either.”

Bruce mulls it over in his head. He thinks maybe this should be complicated and enraging, but it’s not. He’s not bothered by it. “I’m not going to get mad at you for that,” he says.

Tony lets out a long breath, finally relaxing. “Good,” he says. “I figured you probably wouldn’t, but.” He shrugs again.

Bruce laughs. “Really? You weren’t expecting anger from me?”

“You said you’re always angry,” Tony says. “That’s not the same thing as being angry about everything.”

It’s an important distinction that Bruce himself sometimes forgets. Tony probably remembers it more than he does.

Bruce smiles. “You said how you felt about me didn’t go away.”

“No.” Tony looks thoughtful again. “You were gone, you changed, and so did I, but how I felt didn’t.”

Bruce finds himself holding his phone again. It occurs to him that Tony must have kept it charged these past three years, waiting and hoping to return it.

“I’m sorry I left,” Bruce says.

Tony looks at him with a mix of kindness and exasperation. “You already apologized.”

“I’m still sorry. That doesn’t go away, either.”

Tony groans. “God, don’t I know it.” Then he lies down on the bed. “We done talking about feelings now? I think I’m coming down with hives, I’m not used to so much honesty in the first 39 hours of the relationship.”

Bruce smiles again. “Are you seriously keeping track of the hours we’ve been together?”

“Of course not,” Tony lies. “You’re the romantic, not me.”

“So,” Bruce says, doing the quick math in his head, “the fact that you’re consistently correct in your numbers…”

“Total fluke.” Tony looks very pleased with himself. “Utter coincidence.”

Bruce’s face is really starting to hurt with all this smiling.

 

FRIDAY

 

“What do you think?” Tony says, spreading out his arms.

Hulk huffs. There’s nothing to see here. It’s just the ocean, which Hulk already saw. He wants to go back to pounding the ground, like he was before Tony interrupted and demanded his attention. “Ocean,” he says flatly.

Tony lowers his arms. “I need to be more explicit, don’t I?”

“Ocean nice,” Hulk says.

“Don’t be a dick.” Tony starts gesturing around. “We have stable land, and a decent amount of it. Ocean view which, yes, is nice. The planned marketplace is going to be like a five minute walk. This could be a good place for our house. What do you think?”

Hulk looks around. There are markers nearby for where other houses will be built. There’s lots of land. It seems good to him. “Okay,” Hulk says.

“Okay,” Tony says, grinning. “Still have to build the damn place, but we’ll get there. And I’ll make sure it’s Hulk-safe.”

“‘Hulk-safe,’” Hulk repeats.

“We need a house as strong as you.” Tony starts tapping on his tablet. “Strong foundation, wide doors, ceilings high enough for you to walk.”

It’s a bit confusing. “Banner’s home,” Hulk says.

Tony looks up. “I don’t know how often your body will be out and about, but it’s your home too. It’s all of ours.”

“Oh.” Hulk looks down at the ground where Tony’s standing. “Hulk and Banner’s home.”

“Exactly.” Tony walks up to him and shows him the tablet. It has plans for the house. “This is just preliminary,” Tony says, swiping through the pictures, “but it’s a good start. Labspace for Bruce, workshop for me, Hulk room for Hulk. I have no idea what you want in your room, but it’s going to be a thing.”

A room of his own, like he had on the trash planet. Hulk liked that room. He likes this idea. “Red and white,” he says.

“For colors?” Tony writes it down. “It’s going to look like Christmas with you in there, but hey, your room, your odd decoration choices.”

Hulk carries Tony on his shoulder as they return to the work. Several children express jealousy of being able to ride the Hulk. They should. Hulk is great.

Hulk does a lot. He smashes and builds. He follows Steve’s instructions. He throws Loki in the ocean again. It’s a good day.

“Erik Selvig is loving you right now,” Tony tells Bruce as he returns to himself. “So much that I’m worried I may have to fight him for your affections. Want to see video of the Hulk uprooting trees with his bare hands? It’s awesome.”

“Maybe later,” Bruce says, trying to wade out the typical post-Hulk headache. “Clothes first.”

He slowly regains his mental footing while he gets dressed. It’s the late afternoon, they’ll probably break for dinner in a couple hours. There’s a bare skeleton of a town starting to form around him, and he can hear “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” blasting from the Guardians’ spaceship in the distance.

The Hulk feels calm, openly sharing memories from the day. They’re mostly the highlights of his physical labor, but there’s also listening to Thor talk to T’Challa through the beads, and watching Darcy share her potato chips with an Asgardian woman. And, of course, Tony’s plan for the house.

“You really want to live oceanside again?” Bruce asks.

“I’m mostly over the trauma of Malibu,” Tony says flippantly. “And this way you can try to drown Loki all the time. Please try to drown Loki all the time.”

Bruce looks out over the water. “Maybe I’ll just want to go swimming instead.”

“It is a nice Hulk-sized pool,” Tony says.

Bruce huffs a laugh. He’s still thinking about Tony’s home getting blown up and crashing into the ocean. Living with Bruce won’t necessarily be a catalyst for that happening again, but there is the whole rage monster aspect to consider. Just how Hulk-safe can Tony make a building?

“I can hear you worrying,” Tony says gently, wrapping an arm around Bruce’s back. “Do I need to break out another pep talk?”

“Sorry,” Bruce says. Tony hums and presses their bodies closer together. “I’m trying not to expect the worst anymore, but it’s a force of habit. You might have to be a little patient with me.”

“Patience isn’t one of my strengths,” Tony says. His arm is still around him. “But I was able to wait for three years to see you again, so maybe I’m getting better at it.”

Bruce smiles. “I’m going to be hearing that ‘three years’ line a lot, aren’t I.”

“Yeah, well. It was _three years_. Forgive me if I turn into a broken record. I missed you.”

Bruce looks at Tony, and Tony looks back. He has the urge to apologize again, but Bruce forces himself not to. If he really wants to help Tony, he should give him what he wants.

Bruce forces away the doubt and says, “I’m staying. You can ask as many times as you want, and my answer will be the same. I’m staying. I promise.”

He doesn’t remember the last time he promised anyone anything.

Tony is smiling like Bruce has never seen. “I’m going to hold you to that, you know,” he says.

Bruce smiles back and presses their foreheads together. “Okay,” he says. “You do that.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title inspired by the song “Sincerely” by Deb Talan. 
> 
> The Marvel wiki is to thank for the names of the OC doctors. T’Wari and Thandiwe were named after Wakandan characters who have previously appeared in Black Panther comics.
> 
> In case it wasn’t obvious from the text: in this fic Fury contacts Coulson before the SHIELD team goes to space in the final scene of the season 5 finale. Also, New Asgard is founded at the same place where Odin died in Thor: Ragnarok.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


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